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EXCLUSIVE: An American family is still looking for answers and justice after they lost a daughter and mother in a 2001 head-on auto accident caused by an illegal immigrant driving on the wrong side of a Florida highway.
In video interviews by The American Border Story (TABS), which was obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital, angel mom Vickie Schermock Lyon and her grandchildren, Brieanna and Brandon Schermock, described the utter devastation they have felt after losing their daughter and mother, Dennielle Nicole ‘Nikki’ Schermock, in the collision.
According to Vickie, the illegal immigrant in the other vehicle was driving under the influence of both alcohol and drugs when he veered into the opposite side of the highway in Fort Myers, Florida. While driving on the wrong side of the road, the illegal rammed his pickup truck into Nikki’s small Honda. Nikki, who was 25 years old, died instantly. The illegal, meanwhile, survived, though he was ejected from the truck and broke two legs.
Brieanna and Brandon, who were just 4 years old and 16 months at the time, respectively, were also in the car at the time of the accident and were life-flighted to a hospital in Orlando. Brandon suffered skin abrasions and bruises, while Brieanna had to undergo emergency brain surgery.
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Vickie Schermock Lyon (left) continues to mourn the loss of her daughter Dennielle Nicole “Nikki” Schermock (right) to a 2001 auto accident involving an illegal immigrant who later disappeared. (The American Border Story)
In the interview, Vickie shared that she said goodbye to her daughter for the last time just twenty minutes before the accident. When she received a call from her son, sharing the news, Vickie said she jumped into her car immediately.
“I didn’t know where I was going or what I was doing. I went out, and I jumped in my car, and I just took off, and I just knew that I had to find my kids,” she said.
When she got to the scene, authorities and paramedics informed her that the kids had already been life-flighted to the hospital.
Vickie said she could not believe her daughter was gone and kept asking, ‘Where’s Nikki? Where’s Nikki?” When a paramedic confirmed that her daughter had passed, Vickie said she “just collapsed.”
Authorities rushed her to the hospital, where she checked in on her grandchildren.
“Finally, the coroner’s office came over and said, ‘We need you to come in and identify your daughter’s body,” she said, fighting back tears. “So, her father and I went over to the coroner’s office, the morgue, and we had to identify Nikki’s body. I had just seen her twenty minutes before. I could tell you what she had on, what she was wearing that day, and then to see her broken body, it still haunts me.”
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Brieanna Schermock (pictured), then 4-years-old, suffered serious injuries from the wreck and was life-flighted to a nearby hospital in Orlando where she underwent emergency brain surgery, according to Vickie Schermock. (The American Border Story)
The illegal, meanwhile, was also transported to the hospital and later to a rehab center for treatment. However, according to the Shermock family, the immigrant’s family came “in the middle of the night” and removed him from the hospital, and he has never been seen or heard of since.
In the video, Brandon explains that the illegal’s “family came in and just swooped him away.”
“There was no cameras, that I know of, they just said, ‘He’s coming with us,’ and after that he just disappeared. There’s no way to document where he was, where he went, he’s just gone.”
Today, nearly 25 years later, the illegal immigrant has still not paid for his crimes, the family said.
Vickie noted that “probably with the open border from the Biden administration, that he’s back here somewhere.”
Speaking of the Biden White House, Vickie said, “He and all of his administration, they have blood on their hands, and they have no conscience about what they’ve done to us as parents and loved ones.”
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Immigrants line up at a remote U.S. Border Patrol processing center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration on December 07, 2023 in Lukeville, Arizona. (John Moore/Getty Images)
On the other hand, the family praised the measures the Trump administration has taken to shut down the border and restore immigration enforcement in the U.S.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Vickie shared that President Donald Trump’s Border Czar Tom Homan “promised me that he would do everything in his power to help locate the illegal immigrant responsible for my daughter’s death.”
“He made it clear that this fight isn’t over, not for my family, and not for the other Angel Families still waiting for justice,” Vickie said. “Knowing that someone like Border Czar Homan, who truly understands the failures of our broken system, is helping gives me a sense of hope I haven’t felt in years. It means the world to know that this administration actually cares about holding criminals accountable and putting American families first.”
“Sharing our story is painful, but I know it’s important,” she explained, adding, “If one more person understands what’s really happening in this country and why we need to secure our border, then maybe another family won’t have to go through what we did.”
“Losing Nikki shattered our world,” Vickie went on. “There’s no playbook for how to rebuild after something like that. You just wake up every day and do your best to survive it. I’ve tried to be strong for her children, Brieanna and Brandon, and to make sure they grow up knowing who their mother was and how much she loved them.”
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Brieanna Schermock shared a message of persistence despite tragedy and trauma, telling interviewers that “even when they say you can’t, you can. I was given a 30 percent chance to live after the accident, and I am 27 years old, I’m about to get married and have a baby.” (The American Border Story)
Brieanna shared a message of persistence despite tragedy and trauma, telling interviewers that “even when they say you can’t, you can. I was given a 30 percent chance to live after the accident, and I am 27 years old, I’m about to get married and have a baby.”
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Commenting on the case, Nicole Kiprilov, executive director of TABS, told Fox News Digital that after Democrats’ election victories on Tuesday night, “we are more determined than ever to make sure Americans understand the real impact of the border crisis – not just on policy, but on families.”
“Every time Democrats gain control, we see the border unravel and innocent Americans pay the price,” said Kiprilov.
