“I didn’t deserve this”: Mother killed in hit-and-run, relatives ask community for help

SAN ANTONIO – A family laid to rest Wednesday for a mother of four children. Police said Jessica Vela, 39, was killed in a hit-and-run crash on Harry Wurzbach Road near Timberlane Drive in Northeast San Antonio on May 30.

“She was coming home from the grocery store, she was leaving Walmart,” Vela’s younger sister Ashley Gutierrez said. “Knowing that someone didn’t stop — maybe for 5 seconds — but didn’t get out of the car, didn’t call 911. We heard from the neighborhood that the impact was so loud that neighbors rushed to help her. One of the neighbors held her until she died.”

San Antonio police said they collected vehicle parts from the scene. Investigators believe the suspect was driving a white Lincoln MKX (model year 2000 to 2010).

“My brother and I live together in Dallas, so we drove straight to the funeral home,” Gutierrez said. “They asked us if we wanted to see her… so unharmed. I think she would have wanted us to see what happened to her. So we did. The funeral was a very hard day for us. I was the one who closed the casket at the end. That was my older sister; she taught me about hair, she taught me about nails. I looked up to her no matter what she had been through or done.”

Gutierrez remembers her sister as a “cheerful, smart and fabulous” woman.

“She leaves behind four beautiful children,” Gutierrez said. “Not only did they lose their mother, but they also lost their father, who died in a car accident about a year ago. That’s all they had.”

Just three days before her 28th birthday, Gutierrez received this devastating call.

“We weren’t as close as we used to be,” she said. “If she didn’t call me exactly on my birthday, she would still call a week later. She would say, ‘You were my little Niña, you’re so grown up now, you’re getting old.’ It’s hard because I’ll never get those calls again. That’s what I’m going to miss the most.”

Gutierrez says she is a woman of faith and believes in forgiveness. She asks anyone with information to come forward.

“She didn’t deserve this,” Gutierrez said. “Maybe it was an accident where someone was really scared. But if we could get help from the community, I think that would bring a lot of peace.”

Crime Stoppers is offering up to $5,000 for information leading to an arrest. You can remain anonymous. If you know anything about the incident, call 210-224-7876.