Fatally Injured Mansfield Cyclists Honored With Ride of Silence

By Alexa Garcia-Ditta, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas

Jun. 10–GRAND PRAIRIE — Mike Alfaro, a handyman who helped anyone who needed it, started riding bicycles four years ago. And since then, it has been “his main thing,” a close friend said Tuesday.

“I don’t have another friend like him, and I don’t know if I ever will,” said Jeff Delavega, whose friend was one of two killed Sunday morning in a car crash near Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie.

More than 150 family, friends and bicycle riders honored Alfaro, 36, and Meredith Hatch, 38, both of Mansfield, at the Ride of Silence, on Tuesday at the Oasis on Joe Pool Lake.

Grand Prairie police arrested Kenneth Bain Sunday on two counts of intoxication manslaughter in connection with the accident. Police said they suspect that he was drunk when his Lincoln Navigator sport utility vehicle struck Hatch and Alfaro from behind.

Bain, of Duncanville, was released from the Grand Prairie Jail on $50,000 bail by early Monday.

Alfaro, who was married and had a daughter, worked at Security USA and started showing interest in bicycling about four years ago, Delavega said. He and Alfaro, along with other athletes, rode at Joe Pool Lake regularly.

“He was the kind of guy who was always giving,” Delavega said, adding that Alfaro helped him remodel his home. “Everyone else was at the top of his priority list before himself.” Alfaro and Hatch were training for a race when they were struck Sunday.

Meredith Hatch and her husband, Sherman, opened the Primrose School of Walnut Creek, a private preschool at 2201 Matlock Road in Mansfield, in 2001. In 2007, they opened the Primrose School of Grand Peninsula, 2430 N. Grand Pininsula Drive in Grand Prairie.

A visitation service for Hatch is scheduled for 6-8 p.m. Thursday at Blessing Funeral Home in Mansfield. The funeral is set for 10 a.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church in Mansfield.

Staff writer Nathaniel Jones contributed to this report.

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