Nearly a week after the crash, Destiny Gonzalez’s family says grief has turned into a push for clarity about her final hours.
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — The father of a 24-year-old woman killed on State Road 46 while carrying her infant is asking for answers about the hours before her death, saying the family still does not know why she ended up on the highway before sunrise.
Destiny Gonzalez was killed April 14 near Jungle Road in Geneva after investigators said she was struck by a pickup truck while in the westbound lane of SR 46 with her baby in a car seat. Troopers said the infant survived and the driver stayed at the scene. By April 20, the public story had shifted from the crash itself to the missing parts of Gonzalez’s last movements, with her father saying he believes she had been with someone before the collision.
In an interview with WFTV, Gonzalez’s father described the case as every parent’s nightmare and said he has been left trying to piece together how his daughter came to be on a dark highway at 3 a.m. He said Gonzalez had been visiting a friend in Geneva and later got into a car with someone else before she died. That account has not been publicly confirmed by troopers, but it has become central to the family’s call for more information. The father said he believes someone may have abandoned Gonzalez in dangerous conditions. His comments added a more personal and emotional layer to a case that, in official terms, has so far been framed as a fatal pedestrian crash under investigation.
What authorities have said publicly remains narrow and direct. Florida Highway Patrol said Gonzalez, an Orlando resident, was walking westbound in the westbound travel lane of State Road 46 when a westbound 2008 Ford F-350 struck her from behind shortly after 3 a.m. The 58-year-old driver from Winter Springs was not injured, and troopers said he remained at the scene. The infant was not injured but was taken to a hospital as a precaution. No public evidence has been released showing where Gonzalez had been in the hours before the crash, why she was carrying the infant along the road, or whether another person may have played a role in leaving her there. Those unknowns have driven much of the family’s anguish.
Gonzalez’s death has also resonated because of what relatives say she leaves behind. According to coverage following the crash, she was the mother of two girls. Her father told WFTV he is now caring for 9-month-old Liana and the child’s sister, turning the family’s loss into an immediate caregiving crisis as well as a criminal or traffic investigation. He described the baby who survived as a miracle and said Gonzalez had been the light of the family. A fundraiser created after the crash also portrayed her as a loving mother. Those details have widened public attention beyond the fatal collision itself and toward the long-term impact on the children and relatives now trying to rebuild daily life after a sudden death.
For investigators, the next phase is likely to depend on reconstructing Gonzalez’s last known movements and testing the family’s account against witness statements, phone records, surveillance footage or other evidence that may exist. As of April 21, no charges had been announced and troopers had not publicly identified any other person as connected to the events before impact. That leaves the official case at an in-between stage: the crash mechanics are known in outline, but the surrounding circumstances are not. The difference matters. A straightforward traffic fatality can become a broader inquiry if evidence shows neglect, abandonment, coercion or another crime before the collision. Until authorities say more, that possibility remains speculative, and the family is left waiting.
The father’s public appeal gave the case a sharper moral focus. He said his daughter did not deserve to die on that road and urged anyone with information to help bring justice. The plea reflects both grief and frustration. In many fatal crashes, the main facts are settled quickly. Here, the hardest question is not only how Gonzalez was struck but why she was there at all, with a baby, in darkness, on a road neighbors describe as fast and dangerous. That uncertainty has kept the case alive well beyond the first headlines and has turned a traffic death into a broader search for accountability.
As of Tuesday, April 21, troopers had not publicly resolved the unanswered timeline before the crash, and the family’s next milestone is any investigative update that explains who Gonzalez was with and how she ended up on SR 46.
Author note: Last updated April 21, 2026.