"When the incident happened, he was going through some personal issues -- he didn't tell me what they were," Wong said. "He said that's the reason he wasn't able to make good judgments. He said a lot of things were going on that caused him to make stupid mistakes."
Sanchez had three minor traffic citations between 2001 and 2005, including speeding and failure to wear a seat belt. He also had a federal tax lien filed against him in 1991 for $6,054 and a Riverside County tax lien for $1,205 filed in 2006, records show. Both were resolved.
After Burton's death, Sanchez rarely returned to Crestline. He bought a house in Menifee, near Temecula. At the same time he became increasingly interested in Italian greyhounds. That's when he met Lilian Barber.
"He bought an Italian greyhound as a pet and wanted to breed her," said Barber, 77, of Murrieta, who has written four books on the small, sleek breed. "He called me and asked if I knew anyone in the area who had a male, so I invited him down to talk about the breed."
The two began a friendship in which Sanchez, 44, would take Barber to lunch almost every week, sometimes spending the entire day with her.
"He loved his job but always worried that he didn't have enough seniority and feared they would take his route away," Barber said.
The NTSB said Tuesday that Sanchez was hired by Union Pacific in 1996. In 1998, he went to work for Amtrak, then he was hired by a contractor to work for Metrolink in 2005.
Sanchez would take Barber to lunch at Thai, Brazilian and other ethnic restaurants. He'd come over and help her husband with yardwork. And he always promised to take them up to Crestline.
"He talked a lot about Daniel and said they had bought the house together," Barber said, adding that he never mentioned that Daniel had died. "He loved animals and used to talk about being a kid and being involved with 4-H."
He would come for lunch and stay past dinner. Still, he was reluctant to talk about much besides dogs and trains.
"I did wonder about him," Barber said. "Why would this man in his 40s want to hang around a lady in her 70s?"
Sanchez accompanied Barber to dog shows, including one in San Francisco to which he wore a tuxedo.
"That was unusual," she said.
Barber said that she has diabetes and that Sanchez told her he took diabetes medication as well. She said she couldn't imagine Sanchez doing anything irresponsible while driving the train, and wondered whether perhaps he "may have had a diabetic shock."
