After a deadly hit and run in North Hills, the suspect jumped a bus and fled deep into Mexico, police say
After a deadly hit and run in North Hills, the suspect jumped a bus and fled deep into Mexico, police say
by Josh Cain
The suspect in the deadly North Hills hit-and-run in June bought a bus ticket two hours after the crash and then fled to the southernmost tip of Mexico in an attempt to escape charges, authorities said on Tuesday, Aug 27.
When Los Angeles Police Department detectives went to the home of Maritza Lara after the June 16 crash that killed one man and injured several of her own passengers, she was already gone, Sgt. Nicholas Sinclair said.
Family members drove her to the Greyhound station in downtown L.A., where she purchased tickets for herself and her four children.
Investigators said they were told the family was on their way to Calexico, a small city that is 120 miles east of San Diego and on the U.S.-Mexico border.
But U.S. Marshals later found Lara had travelled all the way to a town near the Mexican border with Guatemala.
She was arrested in Mexico on Aug. 17 and deported back to the U.S. two days later.
Lara now faces charges of murder, driving under the influence, and felony hit and run, authorities said.
Sinclair, a detective with LAPD’s Valley Traffic Division, said bottles of rum and beer were found inside the Lexus that Lara was driving at the time of the crash. Marijuana was also found in the vehicle.
The three other passengers in the Lexis were Lara’s sister and two friends. They were all injured.
The wife of the man killed in the crash, 48-year-old Francisco Rivas, on Tuesday called him “a good husband and a good son.”
Through a translator, Haydee Santa Maria Rivas said her husband was on his way to church when his Nissan Murano was struck at around 10 a.m. at Haskell Avenue and Parthenia Street. He was declared dead at the scene.
Detectives said Lara fled on foot immediately after the crash.
All credit goes to Josh Cain Originally published on https://www.dailynews.com
