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VISTA: Family mourns pregnant woman's death

Speeding driver faces two counts of vehicular manslaughter

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buy this photo Jose Vega holds a photo of his niece, 19-year-old Nancy Canseco, on Friday afternoon. The young woman was struck and killed by a speeding car Thursday night just yards from her Vista home. (Chris Nichols - Staff Photographer)

VISTA -- Nancy Canseco would have been eight months pregnant Friday.

Instead, the 19-year-old Vista woman with long brown hair and a wide smile was killed late Thursday, after a speeding car slammed into her just yards from her home.

Canseco's family and friends mourned the young mother-to-be Friday afternoon, shedding tears and searching for answers at the family's North Santa Fe Avenue home.

"She was really outgoing," friend Ashley Arellano said, leaning against a chain-link fence in the home's driveway.

"Pretty happy, too," added Jose Vega, Canseco's uncle.

The young woman was excited to be a mother, and talked often of her unborn baby girl.

She was an accomplished cook, friends said, and fond of Mexican singers Vincente Fernandez and Gloria Treve, said Ignacia Vega, Canseco's aunt.

Broken glass littered the east side of North Santa Fe where Canseco's body was found, just north of Bobier Drive. The young woman was walking home from a friend's house around 10 p.m., and was just yards from her driveway when struck.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. Her unborn child did not survive.

Authorities booked the driver of the car, 21-year-old Mark Allen Davidson, into the Vista jail early Friday. He's suspected of losing control of a 1968 Chevrolet Impala, sliding sideways along the east side of North Santa Fe and striking Canseco.

An initial investigation showed the Impala was traveling roughly 80 mph just before the crash, a sheriff's report said.

Davidson has been charged with two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter.

Four passengers were inside the Impala at the time of the wreck. All of the occupants, including Davidson, were taken to area hospitals with minor to moderate injuries.

The names of the passengers were not available Friday, authorities said.

A toxicology test was conducted on Davidson after the crash. Results were not available Friday afternoon, Vista sheriff's Sgt. Nelson Prosper said.

Canseco's family members said the young woman grew up in Oceanside. She had lived in Vista for about four years, her uncle said. The father of her unborn child lives in Mexico and was not a part of Canseco's life, family members said.

She attended a high school in Oceanside but did not graduate. Canseco also had attended a continuation high school in San Marcos, friends said.

"You never could see her sad," added friend Heydi Juarez, "She was there when I needed her."

Contact staff writer Chris Nichols at (760) 740-5426 or cnichols@nctimes.com.

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