Woman kills daughter, six, in driveway tragedy

A mother backing out of a driveway to buy sweets on Christmas Eve accidentally ran over her six-year-old daughter, killing the child.

When police arrived shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve, they found Marivel Alvarez seriously injured. She was taken to a local hospital where she later died.

The family was at a friend’s house in Wisconsin visiting for the Christmas holiday, Detective Ed Worthman said.

The girl was playing in the house with some other children when her mother, Cordelia Quistorf, left, Worthman said.

“Apparently the other kids realised she was going to get candy and (the daughter) just went out,” Worthman said.

The mother, of Sheboygan, did not know she was there, he said.

“It’s very, very traumatic for them obviously,” Worthman said. “It’s something that one couldn’t imagine.”

Also in the car were the woman’s other daughter and two sons, he said.

Lt David Schafhauser said the mother “noted that the tyre went over something and she assumed she went over the snowbank”, not realising until later that she had hit the child.

Jim Quistorf, Marivel’s great uncle, said the girl’s siblings had trouble understanding what had happened.

“Unfortunately we had to tell them as they’re opening Christmas presents that no, Marivel is not coming back,” he said.

The child’s mother was extremely distraught about what happened, he said.

Worthman said the incident was an accident and did not expect the mother to be charged.