Grieving Families Grope to Explain Why 3 Friends Died in Speeding Car’s Plunge Into Ocean

No one is certain what happened eight days ago at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. Not police, not witnesses, not the families of the three friends who were inside the 1979 Ford Mustang that sped over a boat ramp and plunged into Los Angeles Harbor.

All that is known for sure is that when divers pulled the bodies of Maria Laganis, Timothy Couch and Jose Talamantes out of the car, there was no sign of life. Paramedics pronounced them dead at the scene, and the county coroner later said all three accidentally drowned.

On Monday, Agnes Laganis sat in a Lomita mortuary next to the pink coffin where her daughter’s body lay. Around the 18-year-old woman’s neck was the pearl necklace that her brother, Ted, a signalman in the Navy, had bought for her during a recent tour of duty in the Middle East.

A few feet from her coffin lay the body of Couch, 26, dressed in the brown flannel shirt and brown corduroys that his sister, Sandra, had picked out and ironed. The two, whose families have been friends for more than 30 years, were buried Tuesday after a joint memorial service. A separate service was held Monday for the 23-year-old Talamantes, according to a member of the Couch family.

Since the death of her daughter and two friends, Laganis said, she has been both saddened and angered by speculation by police that drugs may have played a part in the tragedy. Her daughter had been battling to stay clean of drugs, and no evidence has emerged that she or the two men were under the influence of narcotics when the accident occurred, she said.

“Only God and Maria are going to know the true reason,” Laganis said.

“None of us know the truth,” said Timothy Couch’s sister, Sandra, who was also at the mortuary on Monday.

Los Angeles Police Sgt. Walter Wall, who investigated the accident, said the deaths have been listed as accidental drownings, but accounts provided by witnesses indicate that the car may have been driven into the water intentionally.

Wall added that police have not ruled out that the deaths could have been drug-related. Besides requesting that the coroner’s office conduct toxicological tests on the bodies--such tests are routine in traffic fatalities--police also asked that tissue samples be taken to determine if the three were under the influence of PCP, a strong anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties. The tests will not be completed for at least two weeks, he said.

Wall said witnesses gave this account:

The three parked their car in the public parking lot near the boat ramp shortly before 8:30 p.m., got out and walked to the ramp. They then walked to the beach area, where they stayed for about 45 minutes before walking back to the car with their arms around one another.

The friends then walked up to the car, and formed a circle while they held hands. Moments later, with Couch as the driver, they got into the vehicle, raced the motor for four or five seconds and started driving toward the ramp, accelerating all the way. The car was traveling 45 to 50 miles per hour when it went off the ramp, became airborne and landed 60 feet offshore. The window on the driver’s side was rolled down.

Sandra Couch, who owns the car, said the first she heard of an accident was when a newspaper reporter telephoned and asked if the vehicle was hers and if it had been stolen. Later, she said, some family members watched on television as one of the bodies was pulled from the car. Then a friend whom she had asked to go the beach borrowed 20 cents from a policeman to telephone and confirm the news, Couch said.

Couch said her brother lived in the same small house in Carson with their mother and Maria and Agnes Laganis. He had not been employed for a month or so after he hurt his back while working at a truck body shop, she said, and had spent much of his time in recent weeks caring for Agnes Laganis, who has a heart ailment, she said.

Her brother dropped out of high school when he was 17 to join the Army, Couch said. He rose to the rank of sergeant, served in Korea and gave West Point cadets combat lessons before being discharged. He liked to cook.

“Tim wanted to go back in the service, but he wanted to see if he could make it on the outside first,” Couch said.

Laganis said her daughter hoped to become a secretary once she obtained her high school diploma in June from the Eagle Tree High School in Carson. She worked about 30 hours a week at a car wash while going to school, and liked to dance.

And, Laganis said, her daughter had been trying to stop taking drugs. For the past several months, she said, her daughter had been enrolled in a drug rehabilitation program, and was proud when she was recently asked to lead a session. She had been awarded a pin for staying clean of drugs for 30 days, she said.

Laganis said that, to the best of her knowledge, her daughter had probably taken a variety of drugs off and on for two years or so before enrolling in the program. “She came to me and said, ‘Mom, I want help, I’m tired of living this way,’ ” Laganis said, adding that she first discovered her daughter was using drugs after a friend purposely left some drugs beside her daughter’s bed for her to discover.

“Why do any of them take drugs?” she asked. “Peer pressure. They don’t want to face reality. I don’t know.”

Laganis said that the night of the accident, her daughter, Couch and Talamantes had eaten dinner at her home before deciding to go the beach--a place they frequently went. Maria had opted not to go to her drug rehabilitation meeting, saying she would make it up later.

“She was very happy that day because her brother had gotten back from Lebanon the day before,” said Laganis, whose son is now stationed in Florida.

Several hours later, Maria Laganis and her friends were dead.