NEWS
Roswell family loses mother and daughter hours apart
UNM freshman died in an Albuquerque crash while headed home after her mother was fatally shot
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Editor鈥檚 note: A previous version of this story quoted a person whose identity could not be verified by the Journal. Those quotes have been removed from this version.
When Haylee Gonzalez learned her mother, Stacia Pearce, had been killed in a double shooting, she knew she had to drive to Roswell to grieve with her family.
Relatives said a cousin picked up Gonzalez, who did not have her driver鈥檚 license, from the University of New Mexico dorms to take her home.
But before the two could make it out of Albuquerque on Tuesday morning, their vehicle was hit by a semitrailer, killing 21-year-old Gonzalez and leaving her cousin hospitalized in critical condition with a brain injury.
Police said that just after 9 a.m., the semi, traveling west on the Interstate 40 frontage road, ran a red light and struck the passenger side of their vehicle, which was going north on the Interstate 25 frontage road.
The driver of the semi was not injured and was not impaired, according to police. The crash remains under investigation.
Hours before Gonzalez鈥檚 death, the Roswell Police Department responded around 3 a.m. Tuesday to a house in the 1600 block of Juniper after a person reported hearing multiple gunshots while on the phone with her friend, later identified as 38-year-old Stacia Pearce.
鈥淎fter the gunshots, the resident no longer responded to her friend on the other end of the phone call,鈥� said Todd Wildermuth, a department spokesperson.
Police found Pearce and her boyfriend, Tony Joseph Ontiveros, 39, shot to death inside of the home, Wildermuth said.
Officers learned that Pearce鈥檚 vehicle had been stolen from the home, according to Wildermuth. The vehicle has since been found.
No arrests have been made, though police have identified 43-year-old Manuel Gallegos as a person of interest in the case. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Roswell Police Department at 575-624-6770.
For Anizia Barrera, a childhood friend to Gonzalez, both deaths felt like losing a family member.
鈥淚鈥檝e always looked at (Haylee) as a little sister,鈥� Barrera said. 鈥淲e were literally attached at the hip, you could not break us.鈥�
Barrera said Gonzalez was an incredible dancer who also spent her time working on crafts, collecting trinkets and doing math equations for fun.
Barrera said that if Haylee was her sister, Stacia was her mother. She called her 鈥淢ama鈥� and even lived with the two for a short time.
Barrera was at school when she got the text from Gonzalez that her mother had died. She said Gonzales was 鈥渃ompletely distraught" and was waiting for her cousin to take her to Roswell.
A short time later, Barrera got a phone call from Gonzalez鈥檚 father and learned her best friend had died in a car crash.
The last message between Barrera and Gonzalez was 鈥淚 love you.鈥�
Nakayla McClelland covers crime and breaking news. Reach her at nmcclelland@abqjournal.com or at 505-823-3857.
