{"id":1783,"date":"2025-10-14T03:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T03:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/1783\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T03:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T03:17:08","slug":"family-seeks-justice-months-after-77-year-old-woman-killed-in-el-paso-hit-and-run-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/1783\/","title":{"rendered":"Family seeks justice months after 77-year-old woman killed in El Paso hit-and-run"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014\u00a0October is Pedestrian Safety Month, a time when state and local officials urge drivers and pedestrians to stay alert. For one El Paso family, that message hits painfully close to home.<\/p>\n

Nearly three months after 77-year-old Maria Angelica Lopez was struck and killed while crossing Alameda Avenue, her family is still waiting for justice.<\/p>\n

Police say Lopez was crossing near Alameda and Gibraltar on July 19 when she was hit by a driver who didn\u2019t stop. She died at the scene. Investigators later located the vehicle and identified 28-year-old Melanie Christine Cu\u00e9llar as the suspected driver. Cu\u00e9llar is wanted on a charge of collision involving death and has not been found, according to El Paso Police.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say time makes it easier, but it\u2019s actually the opposite,\u201d Lopez\u2019s daughter, Viviana Lopez, told KTSM. \u201cIt hurts more every day especially knowing she\u2019s still out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viviana Lopez says her mother was \u201cjust a couple of steps from making it to the curb\u201d when the SUV hit her.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was almost there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to TxDOT\u2019s latest available data from 2024, there were 182 crashes involving pedestrians in El Paso County, resulting in 19 deaths and 31 serious injuries. TxDOT says pedestrian crashes often increase during the fall as daylight hours shorten, making it harder for drivers to see people crossing the road.<\/p>\n

El Paso Police said updated data for 2025 isn\u2019t yet available but note that driver inattention, speeding, and pedestrians not using crosswalks remain among the leading causes of deadly pedestrian crashes.<\/p>\n

Viviana Lopez hopes sharing her mother\u2019s story reminds drivers to slow down and stay focused.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t be on your phone, don\u2019t drink,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s a life that\u2019s taken and you can\u2019t take that back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone with information on Melanie Christine Cu\u00e9llar\u2019s whereabouts is asked to call Crime Stoppers of El Paso at (915) 566-8477 (TIPS). Callers can remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014\u00a0October is Pedestrian Safety Month, a time when state and local officials urge drivers…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2363,138,1060,2365,140,139,1785,498,2362,2364,2361],"class_list":["post-1783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-angelica-lopez","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-county","tag-el-paso-family","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-el-paso-police","tag-ktsm","tag-melanie-christine-cuellar","tag-pedestrian-crashes","tag-viviana-lopez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}