FORT PIERCE, Fla. (CBS12) -- For weeks, the deadly crash on Florida's Turnpike has made headlines for the man accused of causing it -- an undocumented truck driver from India at the center of a national immigration firestorm.
But until now, the three people who died have been little more than names on a crash report.
One of them was 30-year-old Herby Dufresne, a young father from Haiti who came to the United States legally in search of work and a better future. He was the only son in a family of five, leaving behind four sisters, a mother still in Haiti, and a 5-year-old daughter in the Dominican Republic.
"Herby was very hard worker, very very hard worker," said Livenson Pierre, a close family friend who now lives in Canada. "He loves life. He was full of life. His family is completely devastated. His mother is requiring some psychological help."
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Dufresne entered the U.S. in December 2023 through a Biden-era Humanitarian Parole program, which allowed up to 30,000 people per month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come legally if they had sponsors and passed vetting. The program ended in early 2025 under President Donald Trump, but those already admitted were allowed to keep their legal status for two years.
Haiti also remains under Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation renewed in 2024 because of worsening gang violence and political instability. TPS shields eligible Haitians from deportation and lets them work legally. Friends say that between his parole entry and Haiti's TPS designation, Dufresne was legally in the U.S. at the time of the crash.
Unable to find steady work in Miami, Dufresne moved to Indiana to share an apartment with longtime friend Rodrigue Dor.
On Aug. 12, he was back in Florida, driving a minivan that collided with a semi-truck making an illegal U-turn on the Turnpike in St. Lucie County.
Dufresne, Dor, 54, and Faniola Joseph, 37, were all killed. Friends say Joseph and Dor had also left South Florida for jobs up north and were returning at the time of the crash.
The truck driver, Harjinder Singh, faces vehicular homicide and manslaughter charges. Singh, who entered the U.S. illegally, has drawn sharp criticism from Florida leaders after records revealed he failed English and road-sign tests but still managed to get commercial licenses in both California and Washington.
Dufresne was airlifted to HCA Florida Lawnwood Hospital but later died. Dor and Joseph were pronounced dead at the scene.
For Dufresne's family, the heartbreak extends beyond the tragedy itself. His body remains at the St. Lucie County Medical Examiner's Office. His mother cannot obtain a visa from Haiti, and because he was unmarried, his sisters cannot legally claim his remains.
The family has since hired an attorney in hopes of securing Dufresne's release from the medical examiner's office, so they can finally lay him to rest.