Arizona mom of seven Thelma Candelaria was killed by a train while filming her morning run in noise-canceling headphones, her family saying she was lost in her own world.
Thelma Candelaria, 47, died after a train struck her during a morning run around Eloy, Arizona. She had been filming the workout and wearing pink noise-canceling headphones when she was hit.
The New York Post reported that her family believes she never heard the danger coming because she was absorbed in the run and the recording.
Relatives said she was likely in her “own world”, filming herself, singing, and shut off from the tracks around her.
Candelaria had started filming her morning runs around Eloy as part of a health kick. The push came as she found religion and was baptized only days before her death.
Early Thursday, she shared what would be her last clip. She told Instagram followers she was taking running “seriously,” flashed a peace sign, and gave a thumbs up.
On that same run, she recorded a train blasting its horn as it passed. Another train then came the opposite way. That train also blasted its horn and slammed the emergency brake. It struck her fatally. She was found dead at the scene.
She had first been reported missing after she failed to return home. The accident remains under investigation, and her cause of death has not been released.
Her daughter, Alaisha Candelaria, 29, described her mother’s final moments on the path in plain terms.
"She was in her own world. She was singing along to Jessie Reyez, which is her favorite artist. She was laughing,"
Alaisha also called her late mother an “angel.”
The picture is hard to miss. A mother trying to get healthier put on noise-canceling headphones, framed a video, and tuned out the world beside active tracks. A horn and an emergency brake were not enough to break through.
Friend Amber Sherban wrote on a GoFundMe for the children that she had watched Candelaria’s baptism and the change that followed.
"Thelma gave her life to Jesus Christ and was baptized,"
Sherban said she was blessed to witness it, and that in the days afterward Candelaria’s social media filled with gratitude, positivity, and love for God. She wrote that Candelaria was embracing her faith and asking God to remove negativity from her life.
"I find comfort knowing she gave her heart to the Lord, but my heart breaks for the children who must now navigate life without their mother."
Sherban added that Thelma spent her life being a blessing to others, and that it was now their turn to be a blessing to her children.
Seven kids lost their mother on a routine morning run. Investigators have not finished their work. The sequence already on record is clear enough: headphones on, camera up, one train filmed, another train coming the other way, horn, brake, impact.
Noise-canceling gear and a phone camera can make a workout feel private. Near railroad tracks, that bubble can cost everything, and a family is left to carry what technology helped shut out.
