Woman fleeing violence in Guatemala among 13 killed in California crash

Emergency services at the scene of the crash in Holtville, California (Gregory Bull/AP)

One of 13 people killed when an SUV smuggling them into California hit a tractor-trailer was a 23-year-old woman who had been fleeing violence in Guatemala for the hope of a better life, family members said.

Yesenia Magali Melendrez Cardona had told her father she wanted to follow in his footsteps and go to the United States, where he had started a new life 15 years earlier, the Los Angeles Times reported.