Family members pleaded for help to find a hit-and-run driver who ran down four young girls, killing three of them in Lucerne Valley.
It’s been four months since Tammy Midkiff’s 13-year-old granddaughter Sandra Mizer was killed.
“I keep waiting for my granddaughter to walk in my door, saying it was all just a joke, just a nightmare,” she said. “They just don’t have a heart. They don’t care.”
They are the driver and passenger of a white truck. The CHP released the name of the suspected driver, Santos Alejandro Jimenez Cruz.
Investigators say in June he struck four young girls who were walking at night along the shoulder of Camp Rock Road.
The crash killed Sandra, 11-year-old Willow Sanchez, and 12-year-old Daytona Bronas.
Natalie Coe, 14, suffered critical injuries but survived. She and Daytona both needed wheelchairs for their disabilities.
“It’s very heartless, what they did,” said Christine Cordova, the victim’s aunt.
Sandra’s aunt says witnesses told investigators that Jimenez Cruz and his passenger used flashlights to see who they had hit before running off and leaving behind a 2002 Chevy Silverado pickup truck, which the CHP says belongs to the 18-year-old suspect’s father.
“They looked at them laying there, gasping for air, trying to cling to life,” Cordova said.
“Chances are if he would have stayed, called 911 and got help right then, we would have four alive today,” she said.
Investigators say Jimenez Cruz could be hiding in Mexico or possibly somewhere in the U.S. They are hoping someone will call the CHP if they know of his whereabouts.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that eventually he’s going to get caught,” Cordova said. “You are 18 and you have your whole life ahead of you and you are going to run? No.”
Sandra’s grandma also has a message for anyone who may be helping the suspected driver.
“They need to go to jail too because they are hiding a fugitive, a murderer. He murdered our babies.”