Barcelona Terrorist Attack Turns Couple's Honeymoon Into Tragedy
RANCHO CORDOVA (CBS13) — "She waited for him for 40 years. And now he's gone."
Linda Nunes is feeling her daughter's pain, hours after confirmation that Heidi Nunes' husband, Jared, was the lone American killed in Thursday's terror attack that killed 13 others in Barcelona.
Dan Tucker is wrestling with the crippling notion that his son and partner in a Bay Area pool business died at the hands of terrorists, in the midst of his first trip to Europe, and a honeymoon at that.
"We were going fishing next week, and then a wedding Sept. 2. And that's not going to happen," he said
Jared and his wife, Heidi Nunes, had deferred their honeymoon for a year, putting away plenty of money to see as much of Europe as they could. Barcelona was the last stop after Paris and Venice before they would return home on Sunday.
"They had just finished lunch, Heidi was going across the street to buy some souvenirs, Jared went back to the restaurant, and then everything went crazy," Linda Nunes said.
She got that message in a text from her daughter, who said she was fine, but that Jared was missing.
Pushed by the crowd and the chaos, Heidi couldn't find any sign of Jared.
It was 2:30 on Friday morning when the phone rang in Rancho Cordova. On the other end, Heidi sobbed as she told her mother workers asked for her husband's toothbrush. Within hours, DNA from that toothbrush delivered a positive identification.
The trip of a lifetime, the long planned honeymoon, and her partner's life wiped out.
Jared Tucker leaves his wife and three teenage daughters from a previous marriage behind. It's the latest real-life example of a time honored saying, that the good die young.
"We loved Jared," Linda Nunes told CBS13, "He was a great son-in-law; he was the life of the party."
Michael Nunes flew to Spain Friday night, on a mission to comfort his daughter, and bring the latest American touched by terror, back to America.
