MIAMI _ Tucked away inside a white, weathered dresser rests a brown, crumpled paper bag.
Inside that bag are a few ounces of what's left of the dead teen _ two wrinkled dollar bills, a quarter, a dusty hair tie, a black leather choker, a long pendant necklace, a silver ring, a sorority keychain, a Sunpass transponder and a driver's license.
"This is what they handed to me," whispered Gina Duran, angry tears dribbling down her cheek.
The mourning mother held the chalky items up into the light. Her voice cracked.
"They handed me my daughter in a freaking paper bag."
Alexa Duran, 18, was one of six people crushed to death on March 15 when the pedestrian bridge at Florida International University collapsed onto ongoing traffic. The FIU freshman would have turned 19 last week.
The mountain of concrete crushed cars, even the strongest of pickup trucks, at 1:47 p.m. that day. Alexa, who was driving her father's Toyota 4Runner, was going east on Tamiami Trail and was on her way to drop off a dear friend at home.
In an instant, the bridge _ which was still under construction _ caved, mangling the SUV. Footage shows a yellow school bus halting just moments before the disaster. Dozens climbed out of their cars and dashed toward the rubble as dust and crumbled concrete drifted through the air.
An immense slab fell diagonally, almost precisely, onto the driver's side of Alexa's vehicle. The passenger, FIU student Richard Humble, was spared.
"It was as if God chose my daughter that day," Gina said.
