Natali Castellanos-Tyler: Could a little girl's nightmares throw light on the accident that killed her mother?

Three-year-old keeps talking about mysterious 'white van'

Natali Castellanos-Tyler was originally from El Salvador

Can the distressed dreams of a little girl help and her references to a mysterious white van reveal something about a traffic accident that left her mother dead?

Three-year-old Elisa Tyler was in the back of her mother’s car when it slid off a wet road two months ago and slammed into a tree. Her mother, Natali Castellanos-Tyler, died at the scene.

The little girl survived the accident. But in the days and weeks afterwards she started having nightmares and referring to a mysterious white van. Elisa’s father, Craig Tyler, now wants to find out if his daughter may have seen something relevant to the accident.

“We asked her to explain what she meant and she said ‘It hurt me. It hurt my car’,” Mr Tyler told The Independent. “I am not saying there was another vehicle involved. However, we are trying to find out the truth.”

Adding to Mr Tyler’s concerns and suspicions are reports posted on social media of several alleged hit-and-run incidents in the area said to have involved a white van.

Mrs Castellanos-Tyler, 30, who had three children, was returning to her home in Virginia’s Chesterfield County from a birthday party on February 21 when she slid off the road. Elisa was in the back seat of the Ford Explorer SUV.

Investigators concluded that the accident only involved a single vehicle, but Mr Tyler, who is now raising his children by himself, wants to see if there was more to it.

Natali Castellanos-Tyler and her husband Craig (GoFundMe)

CBS said that one of the reports Mr Tyler discovered on Facebook was posted by 17-year-old Caitlyn Thomas, who claimed she was struck by a white delivery truck on March 30. A day earlier, Subastree Thompson said she was also side-swiped by a white box truck on the same road.

A third incident, said to have taken place on April 3, allegedly involved a white van striking a bus filled with students from a nearby high school.

Liz Caroon, a spokeswoman for Chesterfield County Police, told The Independent that police were aware of the reports and were looking out for a white van. She said only one of the three incidents said to have involved such a white van was reported to police.

Of the incident in which Mrs Castellanos-Tyler lost her life, she said: “There is no physical evidence that another vehicle was involved in that crash.”

A GoFundMe account has been set up to try and help cover some of the Tyler family’s living expenses. So far, more than $15,000 has been raised.