‘She was everything I had.’ A mother pleads for answers after teen daughter killed

Susana Martinez-Gispert trusted her 17-year-old daughter when she went out at night, and last Thursday night was no different. She told her to be careful.

On Friday, a week later, the mother sat in a room of TV cameras and detectives holding a tissue to her face to dry her tears. Her only daughter, Gabriela Aldana, is dead, and detectives still don’t know who killed her.

On May 24 at about 2 a.m., Gabriela was standing in the parking lot of Hookah Palace, at 11865 SW 26th St., with a group friends.

An unknown person in a black Mercedes-Benz sedan drove by and shot her, Miami-Dade Police detectives said during a press conference Friday morning. Gabriela was taken to Kendall Regional Hospital, where she died from her injuries.

“She was everything I had. She was taken away from me,” Martinez-Gispert said.

Detectives are asking anyone with information to contact Detective Jessica Alvarez at 305-471-2400. Those who wish to remain anonymous can contact Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477. Anyone who provides a tip that leads to an arrest can be rewarded up to $3,000.

Police could not share many details about the ongoing investigation, but Alvarez did say this: Gabriela was not the target.

Like many teenagers in the area, Gabriela often went to the strip mall where Hookah Palace is, her mother said. She would sometimes drop her off or pick her up from there.

Gabriela asked her mother to go out that night. Martinez-Gispert said yes and knew Gabriela’s location by using an app on her phone. They told each other everything because they only had each other, she said.

“You expect an older person to die, a sick person, but not a 17-year-old girl,” Martinez-Gispert said. “I can’t explain that.”

Police said 30 to 40 people were moving in and out of the parking lot at the time of the shooting. Some witnesses have spoken with detectives, but more people probably saw what happened, Alvarez said.

“We’re just trying to find out what truly transpired,” she said.

A GoFundMe campaign was made on behalf of Gabriela’s mother with a goal of $10,000 to raise money for funeral costs. Within a week, 191 people donated more than $4,200.

“They took your life unjustly,” the post reads in Spanish. “You were the joy of us all with an inexplicably beautiful smile and you were beautiful inside and out.”

This story was originally published May 31, 2019 at 4:04 PM.