Round Valley is reeling after the tragic loss of a five-year-old girl who was swept away in a river east of Covelo.
Jessi Alvarado, a resident of Covelo and friend of the mother who lost her child, described the little girl that will be missed:
Quinn was one of the most pure, blissful, kind, fun-loving people we have ever known. This tragedy is heavy. The light she has brought to this world shines still. We pray for healing for all of those who loved her and know things will never be the same.
As Quinn’s family tries to make sense of the loss of their little girl, the community is pitching in to support them financially in their time of mourning.
Please consider donating to ease the pain that no parent deserves to feel. Click the button below to show your support. If you can’t donate, please share the GoFundMe link far and wide.
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Couldn’t get the GoFundMe link to work.
??? Condolences. Prayers.
Thanks for letting me know. Trying to fix it. In the mean time, here is a direct link: https://gofund.me/49613c5a
Please close the comments on this article. They are so disrespectful and heartless.
[EDIT]
You are one cold hearted SOB!
Perhaps…and just spitballing here…the $15,000 gofundme is to financially support the family as they work out unexpected funeral and/or medical service bills they never imagined having to deal with, and having to miss work to grieve as a family while making arrangements. Doesn’t seem like they are “profiting” from anything, and really this is intended to help take one less burden off their shoulders while they process through this terrible time. Glad to know you are thinking ahead and minimizing a loss at the same time ?
Sorry for your lose, but didn’t the father threaten to shoot the first responders while trying to revive the little girl? Probably won’t get much money. Go fund me is a scam. Go on there some day and see what people are trying to get money out of hard working people for their “must have’s”
Thank you for sharing Quinn’s gofundme. Please consider closing the comments as the posts people are making are so cruel and heartless. Also posting scanner traffic as news as a little girls life was slipping from her parents has made people feel entitled to speculate about what type of parents they are. Nobody wants to go through what they are going through, much less be judged for it.
I would donate but not after the actions of the father who threatened to kill people who if they didn’t revive his daughter fast enough.
“Just before 9 p.m. a tragedy began unfolding over the Mendocino County scanner. According to reports over the radio, a 6-year-old child was swept away in a river east of Covelo near the intersection of Etsel Ridge Road and Mendocino Pass Road.
The child was found and CPR was begun by local emergency medical personnel possibly from the fire department. A dispatcher sent an air ambulance to the scene.
However, according to reports over the scanner, the distraught father threatened to shoot those performing CPR on his child if they don’t succeed in reviving the child.
A Mendocino County Sheriff’s deputy and a CHP officer all responded to the scene.
Meanwhile, EMS kept performing CPR and the air ambulance kept flying toward the scene.
However, although the helicopter arrived near the scene, we do not believe it landed possibly because the situation was volatile.”
Yep, that is exactly what happened. Now he’s trying to profit off this.
you’re dumb as fuck. that’s just a report, everyone knows there’s so much more that happens behind the scenes. Shouldn’t be talking shit and being disrespectful about something you know nothing about.
Hey Faron. How about you and this little girls father have a face to face and you tell him what you think. Use your “tough guy” words and tell him all about it. I’d like to sit down with ya myself. For you to be saying these things are disgusting. You are one big ol POS
Covelo has massive marijuana grows, why can’t the locals chip in, and support one of their own?!
I would threaten shit in a fit of grief too. And who hasn’t taken their eyes off their kid for a second? So sad.
Cremation is cheap. Everything doesn’t have to be so extravagant. Next thing you’ll hear is they need a vacation also. Sad Story, she’s in a better place ?? Was at a hotel in Eureka was in the parking lot and a little daughter came walking by me by herself toward the side of the property where there were trees. I didn’t want to touch her but I walked over to this open door on bottom floor of hotel. Asked them if their daughter was walking around the parking lot and pointed her out. It seemed like he was going to try to blame me for it, some people need to take more responsibility for themselves this father should of kept a better eye on his daughter, same with hotel guy but he wanted to blame the wife or me. Glad she didn’t wander farther off, there was a happy ending. Things happen in a blink of a eye.
Go Fund Me is neat to helps with all kinds of dilemmas. Somebody might donate their vacation to them also. Maybe they’ll get a new car too.
What a tragedy. Some of these comments are unbelievable and disrespectful. Condolences to the parents.
These comments are off the charts racist, classist, and perpetuating of the idea to let Covelo rot. When someone you love dies you stop working, you have extra costs, you can hardly cook. Claiming the family doesn’t need a go fund me, or that the local growers should support them is a horrifying response to the death of this beautiful girl and points to an ugly bias towards Covelo’s people and it seems like the same bias that was applied to stick a bunch of survivors of indigenous massacres up there to rot in the first place.
People in this county swim in rivers when it’s hot. Kids in our own community have drowned in pools surrounded by adults :white kids. A child drowned while swimming for PE in Ukiah when I was young, while being watched by teachers. I have personally taken my eyes off my babies for a minute. My kids have gotten hurt right infront of me. They retrieved the girl for emergency personnel, its not like she floated away and no one noticed. I can imagine being so distraught as to utter that I’d kill someone if my baby didn’t wake up. I’d wanna kill myself.
To me these horrible comments are saying something that is beyond unbelievable: don’t help poor, drunk, thieving Indians. I can’t figure out what century we are in.
I’m donating.
THANK YOU FOR BEING A DECENT HUMAN BEING!
WHERE IS THE MODERATOR? THIS COMMENT SECTION IS HORRIFIC!
ALL THE COCKROACHES SCRAMBLED IM HERE TO BASH PEOPLE AT THEIR LOWEST AND MOST PAINFUL LIFE MOMENT.
On a side note, I would probably lose my mind in panic if I was so distraught as to have to see one of my babies dead/dying!
And from what I hear, Mom and Dad were not in charge of the kids when this occurred, so they couldn’t trust people then, and they can’t now.
After a review of the comments posted thus far, I have removed a particularly heinous comment that essentially accused the family of attempting to profit from the death of their daughter. Not only did it seem cruel, but its close to slander, breaking our comment moderation rules.
Those rules can be read here: https://mendofever.com/2021/09/05/it-is-time-to-institute-a-comment-policy-on-mendofever/
The other comments, though difficult to read, give insight to the minds of our neighbors and the variety of perspectives in the community. I believe it is wrong to remove someone’s voice. This principle is put to the test when a commenter’s perspective is particularly detestable.
In the spirit of free speech, I will always default to letting someone speak, sharing their vile opinions, and encourage the community to speak back.
I’m sorry Quinn. I’m sorry family.
For those that feel compelled to drop some radical truth on a public forum, remember what Supreme Court Justice Stewart Potter said, “Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do.”
Being a pacifist when seeing wrong just to say that people are allowed a voice and free speech is outrageous. You are doing a disservice to the community by allowing people to slander a grieving family. Period. This article is not about this child’s parents, it’s not about covelo, it’s not about marijuana, it’s not about hiding behind a keyboard and spouting things out that you wouldn’t dare stand face to face and say to someone.
The majority of this comment section should be removed solely based on the fact that it takes away from this child’s loss of life and further causes abuses against her family members who should be held tightly by their community rather than pointing fingers and being absolutely vile.
It should not be up to your commenters to rope these jerks in.
Look up how much the mother of this little girl did for her community! It’s simple.
If you can’t moderate your page and stop the hate then you will lose your readers and we don’t have a whole lot of opportunity in our rural community to keep us updated already.
Matt, you have more on your plate than the average joe as a journalist as far as responsibility to your readers than simply shrugging it off, deleting ONE comment and allowing people to fight for what’s right in your comments section.
This is a failure and as a community member I am ashamed.
Matt LaFever has a tendency to have very irresponsible and biased reporting. He trolls the scanner and Covelo Community Watch Page for information which in many instances is here say and not actually fact. He made the father out to be some violent man threatening the first responders. There’s no mention in the original article that the parents had a life vest on their daughter and she was under the watch of other parents when the incident occurred. There’s also no mention that the parents themselves were frantically performing CPR on their daughter for over 40 minutes before the ambulance finally arrived. Imagine the terror you would feel as a parent going through this situation. It baffles me how heartless people can be. It makes me lose faith in humankind. The fact that Matt LaFever would condone this type of behavior and call it free speak and allow it to be posted on his page is horrific. The parents didn’t set up the GoFund me nor did they decide the fundraiser amount. They can barely eat let along go to work to make money to pay their bills. This isn’t some old person who died it was a precious young soul who had her whole life ahead of her. The grief they are going through is something no one should ever have to bear. The mother has done so much for this community and is a shining light on our little town. These are good parents not people who are careless and mistreating of their kids. I wish people would have more compassion.
First, the article you describe about the tragic drowning of the 5-year-old was not written by me, but my fellow reporter and mentor Kym Kemp. I’ll stand by her reporting 100%.
To address your issues with what facts we presented, I’ll simply say, reporters are not psychics.
We report on the facts that are presented by official sources and witnesses. The ONLY parties that have presented facts publicly are officials via radio.traffic and a later published press release.
No one at the river that day has come forward to help us tell the whole story. It sounds like you have quite a bit of information. If anyone in the community feels compelled, reach out to us.
I have heard from several friends about the currents in the Eel this season. Those of us who have swam here most of our lives know the inherent dangers and are ever watchful. It doesn’t take much to be swept away, especially as a little child.
As a father, I could not even imagine that helpless feeling of watching folks trying to save your child. Distraught… not thinking rationally, and obviously that was not the right thing to say, however, we all deal with emotions differently and I am sure amongst all the other things this father is dealing with, is the regret of making a threatening statement.
As far as the comments here, and on every other Internet forum out there, I understand the desire to want to give people a soapbox from which to speak their minds. Freedom of Speach is an American right. At the same time though, it does make me wonder why news sites and such continue to let people make comments. We’ve all seen arguments being started, utterly disrespectful words being thrown out by anonymous people who hide being the Internet… and this has been happening for decades now.
So why continue to have a comments section? Utilize your Letters to the Editor section of the site instead. Filter the b.s.
Forums and comment sections are pointless anymore. Just seems to feed the fires of negativity and a real lack of empathy.
But that’s just my 2 cents.
That’s a good two cents in my book.
That poor child. She had so much life to live, so much potential ?