Lizette Andrea Cuesta, 19 years old, was found still alive by a man who was going to work. Unfortunately, after having arrived at the hospital, the girl died due to the severity of the wounds she had on her body. The driver who found her said Lizette had crawled on her stomach almost a hundred yards along the road.
The teen, who several people have called a warrior, was able to stay alive next to the man who aided her, hardly fighting to wait for the cops and tell them the information she got about the alleged killers. The stabs, however, were so severe that she eventually passed away.
The authorities were able to detain the couple who is thought to be responsible for Lizette’s death. However, they could not verify any reason to explain the crime. The police claimed they would undoubtedly work on it.
She kept going
Lizette used to live in San Jose before moving out with her father, Ray Cuesta, in Tracy, California. She used to attend to San Jose City College, according to the information offered on her Facebook page.
Daniel Gross, 19 years old, and Melissa Leonardo, 25 years old, are the couple who the police identified as the suspects. They’re both from Modesto.
Alameda County Sheriff’s Sargent Ray Kelly stated that the 19-year-old girl got into the couple’s car voluntarily.
The theory described by the police suggested that the couple, after stabbing Lizette several times, dumped her on a country road near Livermore. The girl, still alive, crawled on her belly along the Tesla Road for about 100 yards.
Luckily, the girl was found by Richard Loadholt, a motorcyclist who claimed the poor girl was covered in so much blood that he could not even distinguish the color of her hair. Loadholt said the 19-year-old girl had left a trail of blood behind her.
During a statement, Loadholt described how he stayed with Lizette while both waited for the help to arrive. He prayed with her, kept her awake, and continued talking with Lizette, telling her that everything was going to be okay and that the assistance was going to arrive. The man affirmed:
“She fought like a soldier, like a warrior,” Loadholt said.
Then, when the help finally came, a team airlifted the girl to the Eden Hospital, in Castro Valley.
Already in there, Lizette decided to make a final statement before the tragic ending. She used her last words to speak out the names of the two people who attacked her, both currently cataloged as the main suspects.
Sargent Kelly describes the attitude and the final words of the teenager as extraordinary, by saying:
“The last thing, we believe, that she was able to do was point us in the direction of the people that killed her, and that’s pretty remarkable,” said Sargent Kelly. “This young woman clung to life when she was left for dead and was able to live for another couple of hours and get us that information. Ultimately that led us to these arrests.”
Honoring her memory
ABC7 News reported that Lizette’s family and friends performed a vigil to honor the teen’s memory. This event was held in Great Oaks Park, San Jose, in the area that Lizette used to hang around with her friends. Among candle lights, tears and grief, some of them shared with the press their thoughts and emotions towards the girl, recalling memories from a nostalgic perspective.
Alexandra Spohn, a girl who used to go skateboarding with Lizette, said that she would always remember how genuine she was.
Yvette Terriquez, another friend of the girl, said her energy was always contagious, and that she was a very bubbly person.
Lizette’s father, Robert Cuesta, told CBS Sacramento that his daughter was a fighter and that she survived all that time to prove them (the killers) that she would not give up that easy. He additionally claimed that she had always been a brave-and-strong leader.
However, a more grieving expression clouded the man’s speech, as he claimed that the pain went beyond words. Cuesta then explained how difficult it would be for him.
Still, Cuesta thanked that Lizette went along and kept fighting for her life, considering that if she had stopped, nobody would know what happened today. As hard as losing a child could be, he would have never had a closure without his little girl’s statement.
Something was going on
Antonio Moya, a neighbor of the alleged killers who lived on Nadine Avenue in South Modesto, claimed that he always thought something strange happened in their house, as he always saw different people coming and going.
During the arrest, other neighbors came out to observe the event. A little boy and his grandmother witnessed the capture. The little boy claimed they were scared because the policemen had guns and he feared they would shoot. The grandmother, Bertha Andrade also describe the situation to the press.
Gross and Leonardo were thought to be friends with Lizette. Although that relation is verified, there’s not any reason for the assassination stated yet. Sargent Kelly said they would keep working hard to discover it.
Source: New York Post