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Mother, daughter killed after car plunged over California cliff identified

BODEGA BAY, Calif. (KRON) — A mother and daughter from Dublin, California have been identified as the two victims who died when their vehicle plunged some 100 feet down a cliff in Bodega Bay over the weekend.

Authorities identified the driver as Maria Teixeira, 64, and the passenger as Elizabeth Correia, 41, both of Dublin.


The cause of the weekend crash was still under investigation, California Highway Patrol Officer David de Rutte said. Initial witness accounts indicated that the vehicle drove through a wooden barrier in a large parking area at the Bodega Bay’s Head Trail before it went off the cliff.

“Witnesses saw the vehicle driving through the parking lot — and it just kept driving,” de Rutte said. “It didn’t stop. There was no accelerating but also no braking.”

Bodega Bay firefighters work to secure the scene of a crash after a vehicle plummeted from the Bodega Head parking lot in Bodega Bay, Calif., through a wood barrier, left, landing upside down 100 feet to the rocky shoreline, killing two people in the SUV, Saturday, April 3, 2021. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP)

Both women died at the scene, according to authorities.

The Associated Press reports the mother and daughter were both employees of local public schools.

Teixeira was lead custodian at Montevideo Elementary in nearby San Ramon, and Correia was a first-grade teacher at Lydiksen Elementary in Pleasanton.

Bodega Bay firefighters work to secure the scene of a crash after a vehicle plummeted from the Bodega Head parking lot in Bodega Bay, Calif., through a wood barrier, left, landing upside down 100 feet to the rocky shoreline, killing two people in the SUV, Saturday, April 3, 2021. (Kent Porter/The Press Democrat via AP)

Correia’s biography on the school’s website said she had taught in Pleasanton, where she grew up, since 2005.

The Associated Press and Bay City News contributed to this report.