MIAMI (WSVN) - Police are investigating the death of a missing teenage girl on the 79th Street Causeway in Miami as a hit-and-run.
City of Miami Police units responded to the scene near the Pelican Harbor Marina, at around 5:20 p.m., Sunday. Investigators said family members have identified the body as that of 16-year-old Diani Gomez Sanchez.
Police believe that Gomez Sanchez was jogging along the Causeway on the sidewalk when a grey car went off the road, hit her and kept going.
“What happened was very sad,” said the girl’s aunt, Concepcion Alvarado, through a translator. “We don’t know what happened. We don’t know anything about what happened.”
Alvarado speaks for a heartbroken family after a Saturday morning exercise routine ended with her teenage niece dead.
Family members who had been posting missing flyers found her body on the north side of the 79th Street causeway, not far from her home in Miami’s Upper East Side neighborhood Sunday evening, less than 24 hours after she was reported missing.
“My nephew called me and told me they found her shoe and her cellphone on the ground,” Alvarado said, “and then he told me her body was there.”
With her father in Honduras, Gomez Sanchez’s mother is now left to endure the painful loss of her only daughter with the support of other family members.
Miami Police comforted the family at the scene.
Investigators have one major clue: They believe a gray vehicle was involved.
“The gray vehicle should have significant passenger side windshield damage, so we’re asking the public, anyone that has seen a grey vehicle or knows anyone that has a grey vehicle that has disappeared. We again ask you to contact the Miami Police Traffic Homicide or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS,” Acevedo said.
The teenager’s dreams of working at a bank and buying a home for her beloved grandfather are gone.
Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent tweeted his condolences when he learned of the tragedy.
My heart goes out to the grieving family of the 16-year-old student whose life was tragically cut short. Anyone with information is being asked to notify authorities. #SeeSomethingSaySomethinghttps://t.co/UYnbBfszDw
— Alberto M. Carvalho (@LAUSDSup) May 17, 2021
Alvarado is giving the driver the benefit of the doubt for now.
“If it was the car that hit her, at least we don’t have to imagine the worst that could’ve happened to her, because then it was an accident, if that was the case,” she said.
If you have any information that could help police in this death investigation, call Miami Police at 305-603-6350 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.
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