A year has passed since police say Randy Archiquette, driving drunk in the Seminole Heights neighborhood, crashed into several cars. Two of those collisions resulted in deaths.
This afternoon, relatives and friends of victim Brittany McFarland, 20, of Tampa, gathered near the corner of Florida Avenue and Mohawk Street, where the aspiring nurse died.
An official state-sponsored roadside memorial is joined by flowers, cards and pictures of Brittany. Her mother sobbed as she talked about seeing her daughter after the crash.
"I can't explain to you what it's got to be like to walk into that room in Tampa General and look at your child ... and there's nothing you can do. Nothing," Rachelle McFarland said. "You just get to bury them."
Three blocks away, at Florida Avenue and Frierson Street, another roadside memorial marks the spot where Betty Williams, 69, died. That's where police say that Archiquette slammed his SUV into her car, sending it crashing into a utility pole.
At the McFarland memorial, Brittany's sister said life isn't the same.
"She was my best friend and just every day that goes by, it's more difficult to realize that she's not there to protect me or just do things with me," said Melissa McFarland, 20.
Archiquette, now 40, is in the Hillsborough County Jail with no bail, awaiting trial on multiple counts of vehicular homicide, DUI manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.
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