LEMON GROVE, Calif. (KGTV) - Loved ones are appealing for information after a hit-and-run crash killed a grandmother near a Lemon Grove intersection.
“It’s so hard to think she's gone,” said a tearful Janika Anderson.
Less than a week later, Anderson's grief remains overwhelming.
“My heart breaks not having her,” said Anderson.
On May 23, after 9 p.m., her mother, Lisa Deuel, stressed over her brother’s health issues, left their home in Lemon Grove.
“She says, ‘I'm going to go for a walk, to get some air,’ and she’d be right back,” said Anderson.
Hours later, past midnight, San Diego County sheriff's deputies say Deuel was seen near the intersection of Broadway and Harris Street, arguing with a homeless person, when a pickup truck hit her and drove off.
“If someone harasses her, she'll be calm but stand her ground,” said Anderson.
The 61-year-old Deuel, a mother and grandmother of six, died at the scene.
“I cried so much, I went into shock,” said Anderson. “Upset, angry, still devastated.”
Anderson calls her mother, who worked in the meat department at Sprouts, funny and loving, and a doting grandmother.
“She was the life of everything, the happiness that we all need in our life to keep us together," said Anderson.
That life was taken from her family by a hit-and-run driver.
“Pretty much treating her like she's an animal,” said Anderson.
A grieving daughter is now making a public appeal for tips.
“Justice. He needs to pay for what he did. He needs to be held accountable,” said Anderson.
A witness told deputies the pickup was a white truck, possibly a Ford F-150 truck. Anyone with information about the crash — including anyone from the area who might have surveillance footage — is asked to contact Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
An online fundraiser has been started to help the family with funeral expenses.
