GILBERT, AZ — Two years later, a Valley family is continuing their plea for answers in a hit-and-run that claimed the life of 22-year-old Joshua Garcia.
“It’s just left this door open that we can’t shut,” Garcia’s sister, Leanora Garcia, told ABC15 on Sunday. “It’s so hard to move on from what’s happened because we still don’t have all the pieces.”
In November 2018, Joshua was driving a flatbed truck loaded with construction equipment along the US-60 near Higley Road when he drifted off the freeway and crashed into an abandoned car on the shoulder. He was ejected from the truck after it rolled several times. As good Samaritans stopped to help, DPS said a dark blue or black Chevy Tahoe or GMC Yukon came barreling through the accident scene and ran over the already-injured Marine, then sped off.
“Now it’s just been pushed out for so long and nothing’s been said, and it’s just beaten down that little window that I’m giving — that room that I’m trying to give these people — so that they can explain themselves,” Leanora Garcia said.
Joshua had recently married his high school sweetheart and was working two jobs at the time with hopes of purchasing a home and starting a family, Leanora said. Early tips and leads fizzled out and they are no closer to finding the person responsible for Joshua’s death, she said.
“I know there’s people out there that know what happened.”
Earlier this month, for the second year in a row, the family put up a memorial with flyers and Josh’s name on the Higley Road interchange over U.S. 60.
Anyone with information on the person responsible is being urged to call 480-WITNESS. The family is also offering a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
