Family Seeks Answers After Woman Falls From Moving Vehicle
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Alongside two-day-old tire tracks, flowers and a small cross mark the empty lot at the center of the investigation. Family members identified 28-year-old mother of five, Jessica Santos as the victim police say fell from a moving SUV before the driver failed to stop and render aid.
Loved ones gathered Sunday night to pay tribute to the young woman.
"She was a beautiful, loving girl. Even though her life was hard... she'd been going through some hard times, but she always smiled for you," Santos's mother Gina Maldonado said.
Santos's family members describe her as a loving woman devoted to her family.
"She was an awesome mother. She was a friend. She was there for anybody. She had her ups and downs, but she was there for everybody. She didn't deserve to go this fast," Santos's aunt Carie Peyton said.
Officers said someone driving a beige or gold SUV sped eastbound on Main Place then turned into a vacant lot Friday night just after 9pm with the victim clinging to the passenger door. She eventually fell onto the pavement and suffered a serious head injury as the driver took off leaving her there.
"That's the hardest part is we don't know who did it, and they're still out there, and they need to be caught because if they did this to her, what could they do to someone else?" Peyton said.
"We don't have the complete story. We have bits and pieces," Maldonado said, "We need to find what happened."
Santos's mother said her daughter will not survive the crash, and they are preparing to honor her wish to donate her organs.
"She's going to live on forever because of the people who receive part of her," Maldonado said.
Jessica's mom said in addition to the organ donation, the family plans to offer many of her daughter's possessions to a battered women's group because she says Jessica would have wanted to help those in need.
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