‘Like it happened yesterday’: Family of woman shot dead on I-95 wants answers
Sheila Nuñez has not slept in for the last five years. Her dead daughter’s voice routinely wakes her in the pre-dawn hours of her North Bay Village home, pleading her for justice.
“I know that from where she’s at [in heaven], every day she’s telling me ‘Mom, do something,’” says the 51-year-old Cuban mother. “Every morning, I wake up wondering what I’m going to do because I know she’s telling me ‘Mom, you can’t let this case die.’”
Melissa Gonzalez, her oldest, was killed by a stray bullet while driving south on I-95, near Northwest 79th Street, on Jan. 3, 2020. The 22-year-old was en route to visit her sick grandfather at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach with her boyfriend.
Five years later, Melissa’s killer remains unknown, just that a bullet pierced the window of her silver Chevy sedan.
“Please, I truly ask and beg that whoever, even if they don’t have much information ... whatever little they have, please message me,” pleaded Nuñez at a press conference Tuesday at the Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Doral. “The pain doesn’t let me live.”
Little new information has emerged since investigators first pored over the case, lead detective Juan Segovia acknowledged to reporters.
Detectives ruled out road rage early on and don’t think Gonzalez was targeted, with Segovia stressing that she “lived a life that was innocent and pure as anybody could live.” Rather, she was caught in the crossfire, police say.
Gonzalez graduated from Florida International University with a double major in psychology and international studies months before she was killed. She had plans to go to law school and was set to take the LSAT 10 days after her death.
Singing, acting and traveling were her favorite hobbies, and a late-January New York trip with boyfriend Julian Veliz, who was in the passenger seat when she was shot, was planned by the couple to celebrate her 23rd birthday. Veliz, who was not shot, took control of the car and called 911.
“She was an amazing sister, very smart, very dedicated,” said Melanie Machado, who was 9 when Gonzalez died and is now 14. “She would take care of anyone and everyone, and we miss her so much.”
Miami-Dade sheriff’s deputies are largely working with 4-year-old surveillance footage of a man entering the backseat of a dark-colored, four-door sedan parked just off I-95 at the time of the 8:30 p.m. shooting. Though they’ve tried to enhance the video with the latest technology, detectives still can’t identify the person or the car type.
Segovia believes the clip shows a driver speeding off from where the gunfire started. Witnesses driving on I-95 told police they heard as many as 10 shots, but the detective says those who were in the parked car have stayed tight-lipped.
“We assume there might be someone in the front seat, because he’s getting in the back seat ... there’s gotta be at least two, three people that know what happened that night,” said Segovia. “That’s why we continue hitting this case over and over ... in the hopes that somebody is watching on the right day at the right time, and maybe it hits a corner to the heart, and they decide today is going to be the day they call out the information.”
Every year since the shooting, the family has asked for people to come forward with information.
Campaign for cameras on I-95 to retain footage
Nuñez also runs a TikTok page highlighting similar crimes on I-95, calling the highway’s lack of recorded surveillance footage one of the biggest obstacles in seeking justice for Gonzalez.
“Clearly what happens on I-95 cannot be understood and won’t be resolved ... that’s why there’s so many shootings on I-95,” she said.
Hundreds of cameras dot the busy highway, but none store footage; rather, they livestream to monitor traffic. Nuñez has spent much of the last five years urging government officials to install cameras that record and store video.
“Since my daughter died, I’ve been in a constant battle ... I’ve knocked on many doors,” said the mother, who has petitioned senators in Washington and legislators in Tallahassee. “What has their response been? ‘No, we don’t have the budget for that.’”
For Machado, finding answers would allow her to have closure in her sister’s death. She considered Gonzalez a second mother and was one of the last people to see her before she died, sharing a room with her for most of their childhood.
“It’s still hard, and it feels like it happened yesterday. The feeling never goes away,” she said. “I want to find who did it, so at least I have that closure and can go on with my life knowing that justice is served.”
Anyone with information on the death of Melissa Gonzalez is encouraged to contact Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS, text “CrimeStoppers305” to 738477, or visit CrimeStoppers305.com. Tipsters may be eligible for a reward of up to $7,000.
