{"id":380449,"date":"2026-07-21T03:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380449\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T03:00:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T03:00:15","slug":"family-seeks-justice-one-year-after-fatal-el-paso-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/380449\/","title":{"rendered":"Family seeks justice one year after fatal El Paso hit-and-run"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014One year after 77-year-old Maria Lopez was killed in a hit-and-run crash in South-Central El Paso<\/a>, her family says they are still searching for answers as the suspect identified by police remains wanted.<\/p>\n

Lopez was struck and killed on July 19, 2025, while crossing Alameda Avenue near Gibraltar Drive, according to the El Paso Police Department.<\/p>\n

Her daughter, Viviana Lopez, said the pain of losing her mother is something she carries every day.<\/p>\n

“She was a woman of her word,” Viviana Lopez said. “She liked to help people, just a woman with a heart of gold. There’s no one like her.”<\/p>\n

Viviana Lopez said her mother had gone shopping that morning and planned to meet family members later that day.<\/p>\n

Police said Maria Lopez was crossing the street when she was struck by a light-colored SUV. The driver did not stop, and Lopez died at the scene.<\/p>\n

Investigators later recovered the vehicle they believe was involved in the crash.<\/p>\n

About a month after the collision, El Paso police identified Melanie Christine Cuellar <\/a>as the suspect and said she is wanted on a charge of collision involving death.<\/p>\n

One year later, no arrest has been announced.<\/p>\n

Viviana Lopez said communication from investigators has been limited. While her family believes Cuellar may be somewhere in Mexico, police have not publicly confirmed her whereabouts.<\/p>\n

Despite the uncertainty, Viviana Lopez said her family remains determined to see the case resolved.<\/p>\n

“She finally had peace in her life,” she said. “And for it to have been taken away, for someone’s stupidity and actions, and for her not to get punished for that, it’s just unreal.”<\/p>\n

The family is now looking into hiring a private investigator in hopes of finding new information that could help move the case forward.<\/p>\n

KTSM requested an update from the El Paso Police Department. As of publication, police had not provided any new information about the investigation.<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about the crash is urged to contact El Paso police at (915) 588-4900 or Crime Stoppers of El Paso at (915) 566-TIPS (8477). Through Crime Stoppers, you can remain anonymous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014One year after 77-year-old Maria Lopez was killed in a hit-and-run crash in South-Central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,1785,2263,134416,4604,2361],"class_list":["post-380449","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-el-paso-police","tag-el-paso-police-department","tag-maria-lopez","tag-south-central-el-paso","tag-viviana-lopez"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380449","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=380449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}