PHILADELPHIA - Franchesca Alvarado, known as Cheka, in many ways, started a brand-new chapter at age 22.She was a devoted single mom to her young daughter in Philadelphia and planning to take criminal justice classes at a local community college.
She was trying to find her way after the death of her own mom, at only age nine, with the help of her two sisters: Tina, who took more of a motherly role and Frances, the closest to her in age."Her spirit was so bright.
She was so beautiful. In the pictures, when you see her smile, that’s what she really was. You really couldn’t make her mad," Tina Ray said.They talked just about every day.For that reason, it did not take long for Franchesca’s sisters to quickly realize, in the days after St.
Patrick’s Day, in March 2012, that something was very wrong.Her sisters say Franchesca secured a babysitter for her, then, 3-year-old daughter and went to Atlantic City with an older man, an acquaintance.