Father Killed on Road Where Wife, Son Died

Two Camarillo teen-agers whose mother and brother died five years ago after a car crash on Santa Rosa Road lost their father Wednesday in another fatal accident on a foggy stretch of the same road.

David Min, 44, a building contractor and the father of Michael Min, 16, and Richard Min, 15, was killed about 1:10 a.m. in a fiery crash on Santa Rosa Road near Gerry Road, east of Camarillo.

His Mercedes failed to make a left-hand curve, then hit a power pole, fire hydrant and large tree before flipping over and bursting into flames, a California Highway Patrol spokesman said.

Min, the only occupant of the car, was pronounced dead of severe head injuries at the scene.

Min’s wife, Katherine Min, 38, died Feb. 4, 1986, from injuries that she suffered in a crash five days earlier on Santa Rosa Road near Glenside Lane, said Ventura County Deputy Coroner Jim Wingate. The couple’s son, Frank Min, 14, died at the scene.

Katherine Min was driving her son at 6:30 a.m. to catch a bus that would take him to Villanova Preparatory School in Ojai. The Volvo that she was driving on the rain-slicked road also hit a utility pole that tore the car in half, Wingate said.

Lisa Randolph, who said she was David Min’s girlfriend and worked with him at his company, DM Construction in Camarillo, choked up Wednesday as she spoke of the most recent accident.

“The boys went through all that when the mother died, and now . . . “

It was a double tragedy for Randolph as well. She said her husband, John R. Randolph, died nearly two years ago in a car accident on the Santa Paula Freeway. She has a 17-year-old daughter from that marriage.

“I’m trying to be real strong in this one,” she said, weeping.

She said the Min brothers attend Camarillo High School. It was Richard Min’s birthday Wednesday, she said, but the family had celebrated it on Sunday.

“We have to accept things that happen,” she said, when asked how the brothers were handling their father’s death. “There is nothing we can change.”

Randolph said David Min immigrated from Korea to the United States during the late 1960s. He was educated in Tennessee and later settled in Camarillo. He had been a building contractor more than 20 years, having built subdivision tracts and custom houses.

She said he had just learned Tuesday that a proposal to build houses in Iran had been approved. He had been waiting months for the OK from a company in Holland that was subcontracting the work.

Randolph said she and David Min had talked of marriage, and had known each other about one year. She said the Min brothers will continue to live in their Camarillo home at least temporarily, and that she may attempt to seek custody of them.