By Karen Gleason
It’s still almost impossible for Carmen De La Cruz to talk about her younger sister Sandra without breaking down in tears.
Sandra De La Cruz, who would have turned 28 years old later this month, was found murdered Sunday morning, her body discovered on a dirt road on the outskirts of the San Felipe Cemetery.
Members of the De La Cruz family on Tuesday held a candlelight vigil in Sandra’s honor and during that ceremony, Carmen vowed to honor her sister’s memory by calling for those responsible for her death to be brought to justice.
Before the vigil, held outside the Arteaga Street home of Carmen and Sandra’s parents, Carmen spoke about her sister with deep affection.
She said Friday night was the last time she saw Sandra alive.
“She came to wash her clothes here at my mom’s. I live two houses down, and she went to dry her clothes over there. She went to go do something, and I said, ‘Here, I’ll dry them for you.’ Then later I told her I had her clothes ready, come pick them up. I remember I saw her nails; she had some pretty nails on, and I was like, ‘Be careful with those nails, girl,’ and she made a face at me. That was the last time I saw my sister,” Carmen said.
Carmen said she had her first inkling that something terrible had happened Sunday afternoon when Val Verde County Sheriff’s Office investigators knocked on the door of her mother’s house.
“They asked us questions, like how would I describe my sister, and I asked them, ‘Why, what happened?’ They wouldn’t tell us. They said they were investigating, and I said, ‘What’s going on? Is she hurt? Did she do something? Did she beat up somebody? Did she get beat up?’ They said, no, they couldn’t tell us anything,” Carmen said.
She said her frustration at the lack of answers collapsed into profound grief when she received a text message from one of her friends.
“She asked me, ‘Do you know who this was?’ And she sent me a screen shot of your story, and I read, ‘Body of a 27-year-old woman,’ and then it just hit me. I knew in that moment it was my sister. I knew it was her,” Carmen said.
“My husband tried to tell me to keep my hopes up, but I said, no, it’s her. I feel it in my heart. I felt it, that sister bond,” Carmen said, her voice breaking with tears.
When the sheriff’s office investigators returned, Carmen said she described to them a tattoo her sister had, a “pretty ribbon bow” in the small of her back. The ink is familiar to Carmen because she said she has one just like it, in a different color.
Carmen said she wants Sandra to be remembered as a happy person, someone who joked a lot and who was a good mother to her kids.
“She loved her kids so much. We all have our demons, and we’re nobody to judge anybody. We’ve all made mistakes, but she was very lovable, very happy, always helping other people out. She was very caring, very loyal,” Carmen said.
She also said she wanted Sandra remembered as a brave and fearless woman, who wasn’t afraid to stand up to anyone.
She stopped again, overcome with the memories.
“I keep thinking maybe it’s someone else with the same tattoos as her, but I know in my heart it’s her,” Carmen said.
Dozens of family members and friends attended the vigil, held in the carport outside the Arteaga Street house, and at its start, Carmen called for her sister’s killer or killers to be brought to justice.
“We need justice for my sister, because she wasn’t a bad person. She was always helping people. She was loyal, caring, and this is how those people paid her. She believed in those people, trusted those people, and look how they (expletive) paid her,” Carmen said.
Unable, for the moment, to go on, Carmen collapsed into a family member’s arms.
“Oh, Sandra, my sister,” she sobbed, as Jenni Rivera’s soulful ballad, “Cuando Muere una Dama,” (When a Lady Dies) played from a speaker.
