EVERETT — Mariel and Adriana Gil spent their lives taking care of each other and their younger sister.
Betsy Alvarado, 33, of Everett, said her favorite memory with her daughters was the last road trip they took together 1½ years ago, a weekend getaway to Bellingham “just for the fun of it.”
The mother parked near a beach on a balmy summer day so the three girls could walk down and watch the tide roll in. She stayed in the car, admiring the scene.
“They just sat there and hugged each other, looking at the water,” Alvarado said. “I took a picture, and said to myself, ‘This is awesome.’ They were in their own love, their own sisterly love. That’s all that mattered to them at that point.”
On Dec. 11, the elder Gil sisters, Mariel, 16, and Adriana, 17, were found dead in the living room of a Renton home on Factory Avenue North. The body of their father, Manuel Gil, 33, was found the same day in an upstairs bedroom. Autopsies performed on the three did not show any obvious signs of death, and there was no sign of struggle in the father’s home. Police believe the father was likely alive up to five days after his daughters died, according to a report in The Seattle Times.
Adriana Gil (left) and Mariel Gil spend an afternoon in 2019 at Seaside, Oregon. (Photo contributed by Betsy Alvarado)
Alvarado still had many questions about the girls’ last days alive, as she said goodbye to them Friday at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Everett. The sisters were laid to rest side by side beneath bouquets of white snapdragons and roses. Alvarado sat and hugged her own mother.
At the memorial service, family and friends paid tribute to the sisters known to loved ones as “Manny” and “Nana.”
“Humble,” “wise beyond their years,” and “caring” were a few words used to describe the sisters.
Naomi Anderson, 11, reminisced on fond memories.
“They taught me how to be responsible, how to cook and how to clean up after myself,” Anderson said. “I always looked up to them, and they always treated me good.”
Last year, Alvarado said Mariel and Adriana went to live with their father in Renton. At first, the girls still visited their mother and stayed in touch, Alvarado said.
The girls followed the Hebrew Israelite faith, Alvarado said, and they fasted for religious reasons. Their father followed the Black Hebrew Israelite faith. The mother said her daughters stopped visiting her altogether around February of 2021, saying that seeing her would make them “sin through her.”
Alvarado said her girls would still talk to her on the phone. The conversations often devolved into arguments, Alvarado said.
“I would tell them, ‘You guys need to come see me. I am your mother. You can’t just cut me off — that’s just not how it works.’”
Telephone communication started to dwindle and eventually stopped completely.
“They were cutting absolutely everybody off,” Alvarado said. “Me, their stepmother, their grandma, everybody.”
Pallbearers guide the caskets of Adriana and Mariel Gil to their resting spot during the girls’ funeral Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Everett. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
The mother reportedly got notice the two girls were not showing up to school, and she started to worry. She said she called Child Protective Services in spring 2021, but never heard any followup.
Alvarado said she went to the Renton home on Dec. 10. No one answered the door. She called police. She hadn’t heard from the two teenagers in weeks, but officers told her they couldn’t enter the house without a warrant.
The next day, the father’s landlord went to check on the home when he heard police had been present at the residence the night before, Alvarado said. The landlord discovered the girls’ bodies wrapped in blankets and called 911.
The mother said detectives found no obvious cause of the girls’ deaths. She said a Renton detective told her that police were still waiting on a lab toxicology report.
“My worst fear is that they come back with nothing,” Alvarado said.
The Everett woman said her daughters were a healthy weight when she last saw them in February 2021. Before they died, Alvarado said they’d both lost about 50 pounds and estimated they weighed around 100 pounds. The mother said she doesn’t believe starvation killed her girls.
“Two teen girls do not die at the same exact time from starving,” Alvarado said. “I believe he killed them somehow, and then he continued to starve himself.”
Alvarado said detectives didn’t find anything in the home to indicate a cause of death.
“There was nothing that could have been carbon monoxide,” she said. “There were no signs of struggle or any injections. It was just like they went to sleep.”
Betsy Alvarado brushes her hand along the casket of one of her daughters during their funeral Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Everett. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
The mother said she found out recently that the girls’ father had quit his job in November. A co-worker reportedly told the mother that Manuel Gil had told a human resources employee things like, “I need to make things right with my maker” and “the end is near.”
“That is suicidal verbiage to me,” Alvarado said. “At that moment, health authorities should have been immediately contacted. They would have been able to save my children.”
Alvarado said she hopes the story of her tragic loss will teach people better watch for signs of mental health crises.
Speaking with a reporter, the mother cried as she reflected on her eldest daughters’ potential.
“I truly deep down in my heart believe that my kids, if they were alive, they would be people that would change the world because of the way that they were,” Alvarado said. “They were just different teenagers. They cared about important things.”
Alvarado said there was a time when she was homeless and offered her daughters options to stay with other family. She said Mariel didn’t want to leave her mother alone, and the daughter wanted to stay “right there with her.”
“Mariel was a dreamer. She was so artistic, and her head was always in the clouds. She was so caring about everyone.” Alvarado said. “And then Adriana, my older one, she was was very caring and humble. It was important to her to be good in school, and it was important to her to be good in sports. She played basketball. She loved it.”
Victor McClinton, 37, attended Friday’s memorial. He was a longtime family friend.
“The biggest lesson that I gathered from them was to have a positive outlook on life, despite the limits we’re handed,” McClinton said. “They were always so happy.”
McClinton said the goal moving forward is to help other families avoid the trauma they went through.
Addisun Martin-Row hugs Betsy Alvarado during the funeral for Alvarado’s children, Adriana and Mariel Gil, Friday, Jan. 28, 2022, at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Everett. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Addisun Martin-Row, 10, also attended the service. She said her two cousins taught her lots of things, like how to draw and communicate in American Sign Language.
“Mariel was always there for me when I was sad,” Martin-Row said. “Adriana was really kind, and she was always really good at making me laugh.”
As the service wrapped up, music arranged by the sisters’ grandmother, Irma Amundson, played in the background. Family and friends took turns tossing white roses onto the sisters’ caskets.
The lyrics of the song “Un Besito Más” by Jesse and Joy was the soundtrack:
“Sé que la luna cuando sale el sol se va,
Que la dalia mas hermosa del jardín se seca.
Sé que el inverno mas eterno ha de acabar,
Y las huellas en la arena con el mar se irán.
Sé que no querías marcharte,
Sé que te querias quedar,
Donde estés un día iré a visitarte,
Sólo guárdame un besito más.”
A rough translation of the lyrics:
“I know that when the moon rises, the sun goes away,
That the most beautiful dahlia in the garden dries up.
I know that the most eternal winter has to end,
And the footprints in the sand with the sea will go.
I know you didn’t want to leave,
I know you wanted to stay,
Wherever you are one day I will visit you,
Just save me one more kiss.”
Ellen Dennis:
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