PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - The mother of a South Florida teen who was killed in a hit-and-run in Orlando made a painful plea to anyone with information about the crash to come forward.
Speaking with 7News on Sunday, Vivian Blanco said she was devastated to learn her son, 19-year-old Anthony Mejias, had been fatally struck in Central Florida while heading home earlier this month.
“My son’s life meant everything to me,” she said. “I need to find whoever killed my son and kept on going because that is wrong, and that is evil.”
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, Mejias was found in the middle of an Orlando intersection, April 2.
The Pembroke Pines teenager was traveling by bus back to South Florida from Tallahassee. He had a connection in Orlando, but his mother said, at some point along the way, he misplaced his phone and ID.
“So he was denied the connection back to Miami,” said Blanco.
Investigators said he was struck about a mile and a half away from the bus station by a driver who fled the scene.
When Blanco didn’t hear from him, she immediately began searching. She called police in South Florida and in the Orlando area.
On Wednesday, Blanco said, she got a gut-wrenching call from investigators.
“They called me and told me that they had found my son, and they told me it was a hit-and-run,” she said.
Although Mejias’ body was found several days earlier, FHP detectives said they weren’t able to identify him right away because he didn’t have his ID.
“We did not know that this person who was unidentified the night of the crash was somebody’s son that they were frantically looking for and a missing person,” said FHP Lt. Kim Montes.
Blanco said she wishes there had been better communication between the Orlando law enforcement agencies so that she would have known what happened to her son earlier, but now her focus is to find the driver responsible.
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