Teen in death fall.. 15years after mum leapt from balcony while holding her

Student is killed in plunge from a motorway bridge

A TEENAGER has plunged to her death from a motorway bridge 15 years after surviving her mother’s suicide jump from a seventh-floor balcony.

Yazmina Howard, 18, was aged three when mum Maxine Carr leapt 100ft from a block of flats with the girl in her arms.

Maxine was killed by the impact but, despite suffering serious injuries, her daughter survived and went to live with her grandparents.

College student Yazmina fell to her death about 40 minutes after contacting gran Janet Howard.

Janet, 68, said: “I got a text from her at 9.23pm saying she was OK. That was the last I heard.

“Whatever happened from then, we’ll never know. We don’t know what has driven her to this.

“Yazmina was an emotional person, which may have been connected to the trauma she experienced when we lost her mum. But she seemed to battle through it all. She was strong.”

Grandad Michael Howard, 70, said: “It has left a big void in our life.” Yazmina, described by her grandparents as “a beautiful girl, inside and out”, went for pizza with a friend before her death.

Among the tributes left at the M20 bridge in Larkfield, Kent, near her home in East Farleigh, one message said: “Darling Yaz, I wish you knew how much you were loved.”

Yazmina’s mum was 33 in 2003 when she leapt from her flat in Maidstone, Kent.

Her girl suffered skull damage and broken bones. She was found whimpering near her mum’s body.

A neighbour told an inquest she was woken by a “very loud thud”, then could hear the child crying. She added: “It was fairly quiet to begin with, but it got louder and when it was loud it was blood-curdling.”

The court heard Maxine feared her ex, Yazmina’s dad Ivan Delgardo, would snatch the girl and return to his native Spain.

The inquest was told Mr Delgardo subjected Maxine and her new partner to “two years of aggression” before her suicide.

She seemed to battle through the trauma of losing her mum. She was strong

GRAN JANET HOWARD ON YAZMINA’S TERRIBLE ORDEAL

VICTIM 2018 Yazmina who had survived mum’s suicide SCENE Floral tributes at the motorway bridge VICTIM 2003 Maxine cuddling her daughter Yazmina FLATS Pair plunged from top floor