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GREENSBORO — She should have been in her big Ford Explorer, not her sister's little Dodge Neon.

Sylvester McLean's car, in his possession for only a few days, should have run fine for a weekend trip to Raleigh.

And the two teenagers should still be alive.

Crystal Cargua and McLean were sitting in Stephanie Cargua's Neon on the inside shoulder of southbound Interstate 40/85 on Sunday morning between Rock Creek Dairy and Mount Hope Church roads, waiting for a tow truck to come haul away McLean's car.

It was there that a Ford Ranger pickup ran into the two stopped cars, starting a fire that consumed all three vehicles.

Cargua, 17, and McLean, 19, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Crystal Cargua's parents said it would be today before the medical examiner could make an official ruling on the identities of the burned bodies found in the accident debris.

The driver of the Ford Ranger, Jose De Jesus Euzondo Balderas, 19, of Washington, N.C ., was not injured. He was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, driving while impaired, driving without a license, reckless driving and underage consumption of alcohol. A passenger in the truck was also uninjured.

At Balderas' initial court appearance Monday, Guilford County District Court judge Tom Jarrell increased his bond from $60,000 to $1 million.

"We have difficulty knowing your citizenship, we have difficulty knowing your identity, we don't know who you are, and you are a flight risk with no ties to this community," Jarrell told Balderas at the hearing.

Jarrell also ordered Balderas to be fingerprinted and those prints run through the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Automated Fingerprint Identification System to see if he has other criminal records .

Crystal Cargua's family moved from New Jersey to High Point two years ago, and Crystal and Stephanie became close friends with McLean, who graduated with Stephanie from Andrews High in 2006.

Stephanie Cargua, 19, said she slept through a phone call from McLean, her best friend, when his car broke down on Sunday morning, so he called Crystal.

When Crystal Cargua and McLean didn't answer their phones, Crystal's family suspected something was wrong. Stephanie and Crystal's mother, Monica Cargua , went driving around looking for them.

When the women came home, unsuccessful, about 5 p.m., they saw police cars parked in their driveway and found their worst fears confirmed.

McLean's family, through Stephanie Cargua, declined to speak to reporters.

The youngest daughter, Crystal — nicknamed "Bebe" — was the center of a huge group of friends and admirers at Southwest Guilford High School, her sister said.

She had just been awarded a scholarship to Guilford Technical Community College and hoped to be a psychologist and have a big family of her own.

On Monday, the Carguas' home was filled with relatives and friends from New Jersey and North Carolina.

They gathered in the kitchen and living room and piled flowers around a table with photos of Crystal.

Her father, Manuel Cargua , was choked with grief and anger that an unlicensed driver with no identification documents could be driving and cause an accident that killed his daughter.

"They are Spanish like us, but we're trying to do the best we can — do everything legal," Manuel Cargua said.

Every fresh memory of Crystal caused her sister and parents to double over in tears: The last meal Stephanie had with Crystal on Saturday night — a Big N Tasty burger at McDonald's; her enormous sneaker collection; the Ecuadorean flag she displayed on her Explorer.

The Explorer Stephanie wishes Crystal had driven on Sunday.

Contact Sonja Elmquist at 373-7090 or selmquist@news-record.com