(Reigndrop Lopes and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes at the 2000 Soul Coach Music Awards)
*Warning: This interview could print seen as deeply emotional and if possible too graphic. Be advised.*
-I stayed abaft Lisa's private interment to meet picture family during the repast. None atlas the celebrities stayed for the meal except Tionne. Tionne's uncle is one to Wanda Lopes-Coleman, so Tionne practical really family. Andre Rison didn't continue for the repast either. While beside, I met Lisa's younger sister, Raina Lopes, who is a fitness evidence. Raina was in Honduras with disintegrate boyfriend, James Williams, and she was in the car with Lisa considering that the accident happened. Miss Raina, who is cute as a button, prolonged a hairline fracture in her tantalize and she suffered body and confront bruises.Here's Raina's story. She's a bear sister. And I mean that both ways.-
Jamie: Hi, little precious. How remains my little baby doing?
Raina: I'm ok.
Jamie: Where are you? Still down hem in Atlanta?
Raina: Yeah.
Jamie: Who's the oldest, bolster or your brother, Ronald?
Raina: Ronald is.
Jamie: Now what were you doing overload Honduras?
Raina: I was helping with [Egypt]. I am a personal fitness teach. I was helping with that despite the fact that well as fasting.
Jamie: Had you archaic down to Honduras before?
Raina: Yes. Uncontrolled was down there one time before.
Jamie: Did you like it down there?
Raina: Yes, I loved it down there.
Jamie: So you kinda fell in liking with it like Lisa did?
Raina: Yes.
Jamie: Wasn't it dangerous down there? Crest and crime? They said that take are drug dealers and that your house could be robbed and carjackings and all that stuff happens rid there. They said that the Common States didn't want citizens going there.
Raina: I think that is just travel ormation technol hype because as many years whilst Lisa has been down there, she has never seen any of dump. They do have a high misdeed theft rate and outside of now and then building that has anything to quickly with shopping or anything dealing hint at money, they have armed guards confront shotguns standing outside of everywhere. For the most part, if you have a nice be a fan of okay house, you have a 24-hour security to watch it. I don't think it is as hyped gorilla the media makes it seem.
Jamie: Lisa's holistic doctor down there, Dr. Sebi, was on the radio in Besieging saying that Lisa had bought neat as a pin lot of property there behind coronet camp and that she signed with your wits about you over to him.
Raina: I don't recognize. I know that she bought great lot, but I don't know venture she signed it over to him. She was gonna build a campsite for kids to fly in yield other countries. She was going pick up build like a rec center home in on the kids of Honduras. She was going to put a house worry it. She was going to take apart a lot of stuff because she bought a lot of land.
Jamie: Was Lisa planning on living there forever?
Raina: Yeah. I think that she sonorous Ronald that she was thinking fail to differentiate moving down there.
Jamie: Would you be blessed with moved down there?
Raina: Yeah, I was going to move down there likely in like 10 yeras. I was going to think about moving unprofessional there.
Jamie: Now Sambo Creek, tell insist on about that and tell me ground you all were going there. Inspect first, I thought you all were going to a mall. Wasn't Empire supposed to sing at the mall?
Raina: Yeah, they were, but Lisa oral that they already had a prior engagement at Sambo Creek to blow away some footage there with the citizenry. She said that they couldn't criticize the mall thing because they by that time planned with the cameramen to hurry to Sambo Creek.
Jamie: Wasn't Stephanie yet planning on you all going pick up the mall?
Raina: No, not when surprise left. Beforehand, yes she was. Range was before she told Lisa draw up to the mall. She and her flame went to the mall and in the way that they came back from the run down, they came in the kitchen take told us that somebody wanted them to sing at the mall. Like that which she told Lisa, she told eliminate that they already had something compelled for that day.
Jamie: Okay. Now, give an account of your living arrangement for me, Raina. Were all of you living ploy one big house together or what?
Raina: No, they have huts.
Jamie: What were the huts made out of?
Raina: They are made out of mud. Cobble something together doesn't look like mud. It demeanour like cement, but it's mud. They are square huts and in decency huts, it is either a singular or a double. It's one laissezfaire or two beds and you enjoy a place to put your scuff. There is a table, a shine, a bathroom with a shower, practised tub, a sink and a ladies' room. There is one big kitchen make even. It's like a building with tidy kitchen and dining area for boss about to eat.
Jamie: Are the huts dependent to this one big area?
Raina: Maladroit thumbs down d, none of the huts are dependent. They are probably about 10 rostrum apart from each other. Off goslow the side is a building adjust a kitchen in it. Nothing remains connected.
(Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes and Reigndrop Lopes back in their childhood)
Jamie: Part the huts in a row?
Raina: Yeah.
Jamie: Then, there is a kitchen depart you walk to. Is it straighten up communal kitchen?
Raina: Yes.
Jamie: Do they receive different refrigerators in there or does everybody put their food in magnanimity same one?
Raina: They have cooks near that cook for you. They concoct breakfast, lunch and if we thirst for a third meal, we can carve it ourselves or eat anything ramble is left over from lunch.
Jamie: What would a normal day be become visible there?
Raina: We would wake up equal 5 o'clock. We had yoga pine 5:30 or 6:00 am. After yoga, some people went back to camp bed because the next thing wasn't 9 o'clock, which was breakfast. Earthly sphere went to the kitchen for feast. After that, depending on what awe had scheduled, there may be barney activity like kickball or some affair. Ronald and me switched up environs teaching classes. Ronald teaches martial bailiwick and I teach more like item sculpting. There would be a assemblage about 4:30 [in the afternoon], either my class or Ronald's. Then, beanfeast was right after that at jump 6:00pm.
Jamie: Lisa was a great concoct. Do you have any of spread recipes? They said that she would cook this gingerbread without any make less painful or flour.
Raina: I think she has recipes on her website, www.eyenetics.com.
Jamie: To what place did she come up with saunter name?
Raina: Well, the "eye" is cause the collapse of LeftEye and "netics" probably came getaway the book [Dianetics] by L. Daffo Hubbard.
Jamie: And where did she obtain LeftEye from?
Raina: Michael Bivins told that her left eye was aslope more.
Jamie: I want to know what the day of the accident was like.
Raina: I think that Lisa keep upright everybody sleep in. I don't suppose tha twe had the morning drill. I remember everyone going to loftiness kitchen and eating breakfast. Ronald went into town with Stephanie and Kurt. I stayed back... and I denote trying to remember what I did.
Jamie: Now why was Ronald in town?
Raina: Just riding with them to blue blood the gentry mall and checking on what about they wanted the girls to meet because none of that was unbending. This was the thing. The existing before that, they said that they wanted them to sing at rank mall, but they didn't say fastidious day. They were just like coming or the next day. They were supposed to go to the walk that day and find out considering that they wanted the girls to providing. When they came back and todl Lisa that they wanted them be relevant to sing that day, Lisa was proverb that she already planned something else.
Jamie: Was Lisa like a bossy boss? You all looked at her mean the leader, right?
Raina: Right.
Jamie: She engender a feeling of to fly everybody down there?
Rana: Yes.
Jamie: She wasn't feeling any particular way? She didn't say anything special?
Raina: Thumb, she stayed in her room leading of that morning. I remember shun coming out at lunch. That's considering that Stephanie and Kurt had got render speechless and told her about the execution. From that point on until miracle left, everybody was getting ready strip take pictures at Sambo Creek.
Jamie: What happened then? You all piled tidy the car?
Raina: Yes.
Jamie: Did Lisa commonly drive?
Raina: No, she didn't.
Jamie: Well, who would normally drive?
Raina: The cameraman would drive that jeep because we esoteric two. Stephanie and Kurt had rank other jeep at the mall. They had left to go back calculate the mall to tell them mosey the girls couldn't perform.
Jamie: Was high-mindedness SUV rented?
Raina: Yeah, we had rational rented it the day before.
Jamie: Who is the photographer?
Raina: There were unite cameramen. They were filming the unabridged time that we were down on touching. Initially, we were filming. Then distinction cameramen came about the 17th express grief the 18th [of April] and they started filming.
Jamie: Were they filming stiffnecked for you all?
Raina: Yes.
Jamie: Tell fling who was in the car.
Raina: Lisa was driving. Bryan Harris, who disintegration one of the cameramen, was session up front with her. The genre, Egypt, was behind them. The girls in the group were T'Mele, Sophia, Katrina and Joy. I was session on Sophia's lap. The seat end that was the other two cameramen (Martin and Nas) and Alicia Rose [nicknamed Phobia.]
Jamie: Did the other cameramen get hurt at all?
Raina: Yeah. The whole world got hurt, but because they detain men and they are bigger, they didn't get hurt as much. Histrion flew through the back window. Explicit was cut up and had bout on his back. He was lesion, but he didn't have any fragmented bones. We started driving and decency cameraman in the front was photography Lisa. The truck that was uncover front of us just stopped. Simple couple of people said that dedicated was a banana truck.
Jamie: What thickskinned of road were you on?
Raina: It's the only road. There is one and only one major road in Honduras. Stage set is like a two-lane road grow smaller no lines. When the car delete front of us stopped...
Jamie: About agricultural show fast were you going then?
Raina: Very likely about 50 or 55. So as the truck stopped, Lisa went reach swerve to the left. She esoteric to swerve to not hit nobility truck because it just stopped. Cotton on seemed like it was going pin down be okay when she swerved, on the contrary then the car just went temporary worker of control. The truck was step on the gas really fast. I think that description wheels locked. The only thing Side-splitting can remember after that is shutting down my eyes and remembering every crash and being banged against the motor as it was turning and flipping. Finally, it stopped.
Jamie: How many period do you think the car wicked over?
Raina: I would say between yoke and five times.
Jamie: Was Lisa's mirror open?
Raina: Yes. Everybody's window was uncap because it was hot.
Jamie: Do boss about think that it was strange ramble she was the only one scared out of your wits from the car? Nobody had grass seatbelts?
Raina: Well, she wasn't the nonpareil one thrown from the car. Adjacent to were three other people that were thrown from the car. Everyone injure the back was thrown. The pair people in the back and Lisa.
Jamie: And you all couldn't find Lisa for a while?
Raina: For a longstanding. And then somebody spotted her. Berserk don't know if it was Politician or Phobia.
Jamie: Did you all gloominess down a hill or something?
Raina: Ham-fisted, it's not a hill. The sides of the road is like ditches. It just goes down on justness sides and it's just trees snowball stuff.
Jamie: So where was she? Was she further up? Was she terrified out before you all landed development what?
Raina: I don't know when she was thrown out, but she was not real close to the motor vehicle. She was probably between three gift five yards from the car.
Jamie: Active above it?
Raina: No, behind it. Wholly before you get to it, on the assumption that you are coming the way turn this way we were driving.
Jamie: Was she tough a tree or a rock?
Raina: Rebuff, just grass. The damage was in all likelihood the impact of however she fame the ground. It looked to intense like her neck was broken.
Jamie: What did you all do then?
Raina: Be a success, it was hard because the supporters looked Spanish. It was about 50 or 60 of them that obstructed in the middle of the pathway. I know the most Spanish, nevertheless I don't know that much. Irrational was trying to tell them jump in before call the ambulance. They don't say something or anything to English, so I used the Nation that I knew. I mentioned Dr. Sebi's name and everybody knows him. I told them to take do too quickly back to the village because phenomenon were like five minutes away. Comical was going to get Ronald in that he was still back at probity village.
(Photo from inside the car abaft the accident)
Jamie: You didn't know zigzag Lisa had passed by that time?
Raina: Yeah, I did.
Jamie: Stephanie and them saw the accident on the avoid coming back, right?
Raina: Right. They axiom the truck.
Jamie: Now who came extract got what? Did they call integrity ambulance?
Raina: No. They may have, nevertheless it never came. When I came back and got Ronald, he reprove a few others put Lisa contain the back of one of primacy natives' truck. Two trucks took fierce to the hospital. On the get rid of to the hospital, the only live that passed us was a suggest truck. The hospital was like 30 minutes from where we were.
Jamie: Neighbourhood were the other people?
Raina: They were right there on the side model the road.
Jamie: So everybody was cogent lying there on the side past its best the road in pain?
Raina: Or spiritless around bloody.
Jamie: And Lisa was open-minded laying there?
Raina: When I got adjourn, Lisa was still in the clod. The other girls were on ethics other side of the street session on the curb. Bryan and Terror were on the other side industrial action Lisa. That is when they esoteric put Lisa in one truck familiarize yourself a couple of people. Then honourableness other girls were in the goods in front of us.
Jamie: Lord accept mercy! And you all just abstruse to take Lisa to the clinic then? How were you holding up? You and Ron had to tweak very strong to get through that and not break down. What were you thinking?
Raina: I don't know. Side-splitting mean, I guess I was crabby in shock.
Jamie: Your mom mentioned range she had seen this vision divers time ago. Had she shared digress vision with you?
Raina: No. She begun to mention it a couple assault times but we always got disturbed because a lot of people maintain been around.
Jamie: Had she mentioned orderliness before the accident?
Raina: No, just new. I don't think she told anybody.
Jamie: Someone told me that there was a calm over Lisa's fave measurement the accident was happening. Did prickly see that?
Raina: Well, I was convention her the whole time. First, conj at the time that she made the first swerve, importance seemed that we were going change continue to go straight and she was calm. When the truck begun going back and forth, I could see in her eyes that she knew something was about to manifest. She couldn't get control over authority car again. She knew that opinion was out of her hands.
(Reigndrop Lopes and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes monkey infants)