Moses Lake family mourns

MOSES LAKE - Friends and family members of Jessica Alvarado, 29, are in shock after she was found unresponsive in her Spokane County Jail cell Monday morning.

She was later declared dead at Deaconess Medical Center in Spokane.

"It still hasn't sunk in," her mother Cristela Alvarado said this week. "To me, it's not real yet. We just weren't expecting that."

Jessica, of Spokane, was a 2000 graduate of Moses Lake High School. After she moved to Spokane and failed to show up for a court date there, Spokane County authorities detained her last week.

But when officers arrived at her cell Monday morning, her life was near-over.

The family was notified a few hours later.

"We couldn't handle it," father Juan Alvarado said. "We were in bad shape."

Jessica's death comes as a surprise to her family, especially since it came without warning.

Though an autopsy was performed in Spokane, officials weren't able to find any obvious reasons for her death.

"There's a lot of questions that haven't been answered yet," said sister Mari Alvarado, of Lafayette, Ind. "I don't even know how to describe it. We're just trying to accept what happened."

Toxicology tests are in process, but Juan said results won't be available for another 10 weeks or so.

That does even less to console family members in Moses Lake and Spokane, who remember Jessica as a loving daughter, sister, fiance and aunt.

"She was always happy, had a lot of friends, and everybody liked her," brother Harvey Alvarado said. "She was always the type to put smiles on peoples' faces."

Cristela said that, as a mother, she could never forget her little girl.

"She was one of my best friends," Harvey said. "I remember all the good times that we had right here just being kids every summer."

After graduating high school, Jessica attended Glen Dow Academy in Spokane where she earned her cosmetology certificate.

While in Spokane she met Nicholas DeCaro at the apartment where she was living.

"When they met, they hit it off right away," Harvey said. "She was well taken care of by him."

Later, she and Nicholas had Angelo DeCaro, who is now 9.

Sister-in-law Gina De La Fuente said that Angelo was Jessica's life.

"She was very family-oriented," Gina said, adding that Jessica always went out of her way to give her nieces and nephews little toys or candy whenever she visited.

"We're very grateful to have Angelo. He'll always remind us of her," Mari said. "She'll always be my baby sister."

Jessica is survived by her fiance Nicholas DeCaro and son Angelo DeCaro, both of Spokane; parents Juan and Cristela Alvarado, of Moses Lake; siblings Mari Alvarado and Josh Thomas, of Lafayette, Ind.; Harvey Alvarado and Gina De La Fuente, of Moses Lake; and nieces and nephews Esai, Caleb, Adrian, Myah and Maci.

Services are set for August 20 at 10 a.m. at our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church, 200 N. Dale Road, Moses Lake.