Community still rallying behind Chilean survivors (PHOTOS, LETTER and VIDEO)

Two-and-a-half months after the unthinkable tragedy that rocked our community, the three surviving Chilean students are moving forward — still healing inside and out.

The fatal shooting in the early morning hours of Feb. 26 left Chilean student workers Nicolas Pablo Corp-Torres, 23, and Racine Balbontin-Aragondona, 22, dead at the scene, after alleged gunman Dannie Baker opened fire on a quiet gathering at Summer Lake townhomes in Miramar Beach.

David Bilbao-Meza, 21, and friends Sebastian Mauricio Arizaga-Suarez, 27, and, Francisco Javier Cofre-Fernande, 25, were hospitalized with injuries from multiple rounds fired from Baker’s rifle through a window in Unit 12.

_______

To watch a video of David describing the ordeal, click here.

_______

“I really miss him,” said Digna Coyden, a Santa Rosa Beach resident who got close to David and his brother, Mario, in the weeks prior to their return to Chile.

Since the tragedy, the community has shown their support through a memorial service for the slain students, and donating funds to help with medical bills, counseling and physical therapy for the survivors.

Mike Burke, a spokesperson for Sacred Heart Hospital, said that Sebastian and Francisco were discharged over a month ago and are on the mend.

Sebastian is still recuperating from a hand injury with family in Maryland until he returns to Chile in July.

Francisco is back in his home country and in school. His father, Mario Cofre Varas, told Sacred Heart Hospital in an e-mail that their son’s facial trauma still requires daily bandaging, a task his family helps with every morning.

“The recovering of Francisco is each day better,” Varas wrote. “The injury in his face is gone closing and the skin in that area is a little sunken.”

David, who was in the hospital for about a week, is also back in school and coping the best he can.

Coyden got to know David after she heard about the shooting while out of town in late February. She came home just after the incident with one thing on her mind.

“I tried to find them and I couldn’t,” she said. Calling around got her nowhere.

Her break came when she read about the March 15 memorial service at Liza Jackson Park in Fort Walton Beach. She attended the memorial and introduced herself to David and Mario.

“When I met them, something in their faces (told me) that they were good kids,” said Coyden, a nanny and Chilean immigrant who came to the United States in 1969.

Coyden learned the brothers were going to be without a place to stay, so she decided to open her home to them.
In spite of being told by others that she was crazy, Coyden allowed the brothers to temporarily stay at her home and use her car.

“They were always very respectful,” she said. “Their mother did a really good job with those kids.”

During the weeks with Coyden, David had another surgery to have pins removed from his left forearm before the brothers left for Chile on April 15. Mario called Coyden to let her know they made it back.

A couple of weeks later, she received another phone call thanking her for the hospitality and was happy to hear they were back in school.

Coyden also keeps in contact with David’s older sister by e-mail, and she recently revealed that David is “not doing well at all.”

Coyden was worried, because David never received any counseling before going home, and he appeared nervous to return to his family’s questions and media attention.

“I told him ‘you are going to have to relive this over and over again and that will help heal you,’ ” she told The Log.

Though she misses them, Coyden said she was “frustrated” by one thing she found after the brothers returned to Chile.

“After they left, I started cleaning my house and found the envelope with unfamiliar writing,” she said.

On the back of the envelope, the writing had many thoughts: the person who shot them was not a patriot; he didn’t love his country or his flag; he was a true terrorist and by doing this he is undermining the United States all over the world.

The strong words about Baker also included that his actions were “not an accident,” but an “assassination.”

On March 10, David told The Log in an interview less than two weeks after the incident that “it’s too early to feel anything from this.”

Coyden said she is not sure which brother the handwriting belongs to and stressed that they never expressed hatred toward Baker, only a woeful disappointment.

The next chapter in the tragedy will begin with Baker’s pretrial hearing on June 25 at 8:30 a.m. in Walton County.

Since the shooting, Baker, 60, has entered a plea of not guilty after the state’s attorney notified the court of the intent to seek the death penalty. His indictment includes two counts of first-degree premeditated murder with a firearm, three counts of attempted murder and one count of firing into a building.

The tragedy also grabbed international attention. In mid-April, the second-largest Spanish-language American television network, Telemundo, came to Destin to tape a segment for the show “Aqui y Ahora”, or Here and Now, profiling what happened.

Coyden said that regardless of what happened to David and the others, he has plans to come back to Destin within the next couple of years.

“He loved this place.”

LETTER TO THE HOPSITAL FROM FRANCISCO'S PARENTS

* This letter from Francisco’s parents was translated from its original Spanish version. Here, they write to Debbie Bostic, president of Sacred Heart Hospital; Ann Erickson, director of patient advocacy; Martha Perez, administrator of the hospital’s nursing home; and social worker Ruth Quesada. Perez, Quesada and security guard Nelson Santos are fluent in Spanish and communicated with the Chileans during Francisco’s stay at the hospital.


Dear Debbie, Ann, Martha, and Ruth:

First, my apologies to Debbie and Ann for writing this in Spanish. They can write to me in English, and I will try to do that later. I only ask that Martha and Ruth translate this correspondence for you.

We have arrived home very happy, feeling very different from how I felt on February 27th when I said good-bye to my family in Chile and I began my trip to Pensacola, as my biggest concern was if I would find Francisco alive when I arrived.

Thank you to all of the marvelous people who attended to him from the first moment. We have had tremendous joy in coming home with high hopes for Francisco's recovery and looking to the future with great optimism.

This has been the most brutal experience we've had as a family, but at the same time, thanks to each of you and those associates of this wonderful hospital, as each day our hearts are filled with joy in thanks for our son's recovery and for all of the love that you gave us.

We thank God for giving us such precious people, who we know, gave much more than what their jobs indicated. From the wonderful Debbie to a tremendously warm Nelson, whom each day, they were both by our side and took us by the hand, giving us strength to overcome the deep pain that we felt from the first minute we were made aware of this tragedy.

There is no doubt that the love that each of you gave us was instrumental in our son's recovery. And to say that you are each his (Francisco's) “American Mommas” is not just a phrase, but I feel it is a reality. You each gave him plenty of Motherly Love, giving him the strength to beat adversity.

We would have loved to have given a warm hug to each person who gave us their affection during our stay. First, (warm hugs) to the associates from the third floor, Intensive Care Unit, and then to the associates on the fifth floor, and then those on the first floor. We do not want to forget the cafeteria staff, those working in the gift shop and those persons I don't even know who stopped me in the halls to ask how my son was doing.

Finally, to the wonderful Sacred Heart Hospital, whom we will never separate from our hearts. Our prayers will be with you forever. You helped us to be able to bring our son home with us, projecting his future according to new realities ...WE ARE HAPPY.

Thank you for allowing us to have our son with us (in the hospital), thank you for your prayers, thank you for the strength that you gave us and above all things, thank you for the love that you gave to each of us, and that you made us feel so happy.

May God protect you always and we pray for the many other people who will benefit from the love that you give.

— Mario and Lucy

Want to help?
Donations can be made to The Benefit of the Chilean Students Fund at any Beach Community Bank at Account No. 65656. Call 244-9900 for more details. The account is to offset medical bills, provide counseling and physical therapy for the recovering victims.