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BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A family is seeking justice after a 22-year-old pregnant Bakersfield woman was killed in a hit-and-run last month at 4th and V streets.
“It’s like a dream, we’re never going to be able to see her again,” said Angelica Gutierrez, the victim’s cousin.
Gutierrez said Maria Alicia Rios was the victim of the hit-and-run at 4th and V streets on Jan. 28. According to police, officers found a woman in the roadway at around 11:20 p.m. after a dark colored pick-up hit the woman and fled the scene. Gutierrez said that woman was Rios, and she was seven months pregnant and died from the collision.
The family has been told by witnesses the driver of the vehicle was a woman. No arrests have been made.
“We just want justice,” Gutierrez said. “We just want [the driver] behind bars for what she did to my cousin. She took two lives from our family and she’s just out there.”
Gutierrez said Rios was looking forward to motherhood.
“The day she told me was pregnant, I can hear her voice. She was so happy she was pregnant, she loved the baby, that was going to be her first baby.”
Now she said all she has is what is left to remember her by.
“A lot of people knew her around the area where she was hit […] she was a good person, she liked to help a lot of people out. She had a big heart. All we have left is memories, all we can do is think about the good times we have together and when I seen her last,” said Gutierrez.
The collision is an ongoing investigation, but Gutierrez said videos are circulating the internet of the crash that include the license plate of the vehicle, but the suspect is still out there.
“To lose my cousin like that … it’s not the way we wanted to ever hear we lost a person like that. I mean, she took everything from us,” said Gutierrez.
The family has started a GoFundMe, and you can find that at this link.