Last Updated on September 5, 2018 by CCAR Staff
The daughter of a woman killed in a hit-and-run collision in Jurupa Valley is pleading for witnesses — and the driver who fled — to come forward.
Jean Rodriguez, 45, was struck by a vehicle about 4:45 a.m. Aug. 25 as she walked along the eastbound lanes of Mission Boulevard near Valley Way, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department said. The driver fled before Rodriguez was found.
“They hit my mom and left her in the street like a dog,” her daughter, Samantha Rigueira, said Wednesday, Sept. 5.
“I just hope anyone who was in that area at that time, if they know anything, if they saw anything, turn in the information so we can catch that guy, because a lot of people are hurting from this,” she said.
She urged the driver to turn himself or herself in to police.
“How can you live day-to-day, knowing that you did this?” Rigueira said.
Rigueira described Rodriguez as a beautiful, kindhearted grandmother, mother and sister. Rodriguez had a college degree and a medical billing certificate, her daughter said.
Rodriguez was staying in Riverside with an aunt after being released from a mental hospital three days before her death, Rigueira said. Detectives told Rigueira that her mother was seen buying cigarettes at a gas station in Jurupa Valley about 25 minutes before she was struck. Rigueira said she didn’t know how her mother got to Jurupa Valley.
Rodriguez, who was divorced, is survived by a daughter, son and three grandchildren.
The Sheriff’s Department asks that anyone with information call the Jurupa Valley station at 951-955-2600 or Crime Stoppers at 800-782-7463.
