This story was updated at 2 p.m. on June 25.

A Hyattsville woman who leaves behind six children and a woman with ties to Upper Marlboro were among nine people killed in Monday's Metro crash that left their families devastated this week as federal investigators try to pinpoint the cause.

Ana Fernandez's husband, Oscar Flores, leaned against a jungle gym Tuesday evening in the playground just outside of his garden-style apartment building in West Hyattsville.

As neighborhood children played in the background, family members stood alongside Flores. They were red-eyed as neighbors approached him and joined in quiet crying and offered condolences.

"She was with her children all the time," Flores said in Spanish.

Fernandez's children are ages 21, 18, 14, 12, 10 and 2, her family said.

"I was always visiting [her]," said her cousin, Jamie Salvador, in Spanish. "She was a very good mother. She worked really hard for her children."

Her brother, William Fernandez, said in Spanish that his sister, 40, had emigrated from El Salvador 20 years ago and "was a fighter and a worker."

"We are going to help take care of them," he said of her children.

William Fernandez said his sister cleaned office buildings in Washington, D.C., and was headed for work Monday afternoon from the Takoma Metro Station at the time of the two-train crash that killed nine people, including a train operator, and injured more than 70 others.

William Fernandez said his sister normally returned home from work around 11:30 p.m. or midnight, but after news of the crash came out Monday, the family tried to find her. Authorities called the family around 10 p.m. Monday to tell them what happened, he said.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday a faulty circuit on the tracks between two Metro stations may have been responsible for the crash, the worst in the 33-year history of Metrorail.

An NTSB spokeswoman said maintenance work had been performed earlier this month and also late last year on the potentially faulty circuit that would have stopped or slowed the moving train that slammed into a stationary train.

Tuesday, NTSB officials confirmed the emergency brake of the Metro train that slammed into the stationary train had been depressed before the crash.

The other crash victims killed include train operator Jeanice McMillan, 42, of Springfield, Va.; District residents retired National Guard Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley and his wife, Ann, both 62; Mary Doolittle, 59; Dennis Hawkins, 64; Veronica DuBose, 29; and Takoma Park resident Cameron Williams, 37.

LaVonda King, 23, a woman with ties to the Upper Marlboro area, was also among the dead.

Her family is planning a vigil at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kenilworth Parkside Recreation Center, at 4300 Anacostia Avenue NE in the District. They are inviting members of the general public and other crash victims and they ask that participants bring a white candle and a Dixie cup.

King's friend, Danita Delaney of the District, said when she heard about the crash, she said she started making phone calls and sending messages on Facebook to make sure her friends were OK. She said she contacted between 30 and 40 people, all of whom said they had missed the train or made other plans.

Then her phone rang around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday. It was King's mother, Upper Marlboro resident Tawanda Brown, calling to tell Delaney the news.

Delaney, 40, struggled to describe the moment during a telephone interview Wednesday.

"I was … oh God, I can't even put words to it … I was dreaming, a nightmare … I was kind of … I just can't describe the words, to describe this feeling."

Delaney started crying, and it was several minutes before she could speak again.

"I just lost my words," she said. "Oh, God."

Delaney said King had two sons, ages 2 and 3, and she was engaged to be married. She opened her own business last week, a salon in Forestville called LaVonda's House of Beauty, Delaney said. Her mother was her first customer on Friday, she said.

In Hyattsville, William Fernandez said the family has been in contact with local authorities to coordinate and pay for Ana Fernandez' funeral arrangements but may need more help.

The office of Washington, D.C., Councilman Jim Graham (Ward 1) has been coordinating relief efforts for the family. Ted Loza, Graham's chief of staff, said the family wants to bring Fernandez's parents from El Salvador for the funeral.

"I think this would be one of the biggest sources of appeasement during these hard times," Loza said Wednesday.

Loza said his office is working to get humanitarian visas and plane tickets for the parents, but "the clock is ticking," as the funeral could be held this week.

The family also has immediate financial needs, Loza said. People donated money during a church service at National Wesleyan Church in Hyattsville on Tuesday night.

Metro has set up an emergency hardship relief fund of $250,000 to help victims with medical, funeral or other immediate expenses, according to WMATA.

Hyattsville Mayor William Gardiner said he learned Tuesday of Fernandez's death in the crash. He said the city is reaching out to churches and groups who may be coordinating assistance efforts, and a city staff member fluent in Spanish will try to meet with them to see what kind of help they need.

"There's the assumed safety of the Metro that we all take for granted, and a lot of people in the area use Metro," Gardiner said. "I hope we are able to, as a community, provide some support to the Fernandez family."

The family has set up a bank account for donations. Residents can drop off donations at any Chevy Chase Bank location and make checks out to Nerio N. Fernandez or William S. Fernandez.