Emma Lourenco, the only survivor in the crash that killed her parents and two siblings south of Turlock, faces a long, hard recovery, a family member explained on social media.

The Dec. 15 crash on Lander Avenue took the life of Ceres teacher Jennifer Lynn Lourenco, 45, husband Daniel Lourenco, 44, daughter Madelynn, 16, and son Matthew, 14.

Jason McClelland, brother of Jennifer Lourenco posted on Facebook that 18-year-old Emma suffered a severe brain injury that will require long-term and intensive care and rehabilitation.

“It will be a while before we know what the long-term looks like for her cognitively and physically,” wrote McClelland. “Fortunately, she is showing really good signs so far- when she is awake, she is able to respond to basic commands from the nursing staff, and she is able to move fingers and toes in both hands and feet, though her left side is much less responsive than the right. These are good signs that she still has at least basic connectivity to build on for the longer term.”

Emma was moved out of ICU but still in intensive care and likely will be for a while.

“We are starting to figure out where she should go for her next step of longer-term care and intensive rehab. She will likely remain in a hospital full time for months to come.

“She is still mostly non-verbal, and we don’t know how much she knows or recognizes what she’s been through, where she is, etc., which is probably a gift in the short-term so she doesn’t have to try to process the terrible tragedy that happened to her and the rest of her family until her body is in a better place to try to begin that process.”

He asked that friends understand that Emma is “still in a very fragile state” so exposure to visitors is being kept at a minimum.

“Fortunately, we are beyond the highest risk window for surviving, but now the path forward will involve months of therapy and rehab to help her brain learn new pathways such that she can have maximum mobility and cognitive capabilities – and it will likely be weeks before we start to understand what those future possibilities and quality of life really look like for her.”

McClelland said he and family members are having difficulty emotionally processing the tragedy.

“It still doesn’t feel real. All the feelings you might imagine – survivors guilt of thinking why it was them and not me, what more we could have or should have done, incredible sadness at seeing such bright lives cut off before they really had a start, second guessing the life and death decisions we had to make on a 14-year-old who ultimately did not make it and wondering if we should have done something different, and the futility of realizing they weren’t really ‘decisions’ and all this was completely outside of any of our control. The feelings of incredible anger at the boy who was speeding and driving recklessly balanced with the empathy that his mother also lost a child, and knowing that I was once a dumb young dude, and could’ve had something like this happen with me.”

McClelland followed up his Jan. 1 post thanking Jennifer’s coworkers at Sinclear Elementary School for setting up the GoFundMe account that paid for the funeral and will go towards Emma’s long term care. He also thanked the Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Turlock for the fundraising, donations and support.

The Lourencos were headed to that church when the crash occurred at 9:25 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 15, at Lander and Greenway avenues. Greenway traffic must stop at the intersection and yield at Lander Avenue traffic which does not stop.

Uriel Guizar-Negrete, 22, of Modesto was driving a 2008 Infiniti northbound on Lander at a high rate of speed, according to the California Highway Patrol. The 2023 Jeep driven by Daniel Lourenco stopped at the stop sign on Greenway Avenue before entering Lander right in the path of the speeding Infiniti. The Infiniti smashed into the driver’s side of the Jeep, instantly killing Guizar-Negrete, who was not wearing a seat belt and ejected from the vehicle.

The Jeep was hit with such force that it was pushed approximately 150 feet from the point of impact.

Daniel and Jennifer Lourenco were killed instantly. Madelynn, who was sitting on the impact side of the Jeep, later died at Doctors Medical Center.

Jennifer Lourenco was hired by Ceres Unified School District in 2020 to teach at La Rosa Elementary School before she taught at Sinclear. She taught moderate-severe special needs students and was named “Teacher of the Year” for the 2023-24 school year.

Jennifer Lourenco was born Sept. 6, 1979 in Hanford. She moved to Turlock after high school where she studied at CSU Stanislaus.

She leaves behind her parents, Linda and Dennis McClellan.