Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Mom DESPERATE after son riding bike in coma from HIT-AND-RUN

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Mom DESPERATE after son riding bike in coma from HIT-AND-RUN · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. According to Sacramento police, hit
0:13
Speaker 1: and run happened at a round two am Sunday near
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Speaker 1: the intersection of T and Alhambra. Francisco Rodriguez, who friends
0:20
Speaker 1: and family called Paco, had just installed led lights on
0:24
Speaker 1: his bike the night of the crash lit up. I
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Speaker 1: don't know how anybody could have not seen him on
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Speaker 1: that bike. It is all red lit up. Paco's friends
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Speaker 1: and family or posting flyers around Sacramento tonight hoping anyone
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Speaker 1: with information will call the police. I want them to
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Speaker 1: turn themselves in. How dare you take my son like
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Speaker 1: that and heard him and leave him there, didn't stop
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Speaker 1: to help him. How can anybody have a heart and
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Speaker 1: how can they do that, least for me there to die?
0:49
Speaker 1: What happened to Francisco Rodriguez? Why was he mowed down
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Speaker 1: in the prime of his life? Right now? Family wanting answerers.
1:01
Speaker 1: I'm Nancy Grays. This is crime story straight out to
1:04
Speaker 1: Ellen colorin Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter Ellen. What
1:09
Speaker 1: happened Francisco Rodriguez, an avid cyclist who was always aware
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Speaker 1: of safety, had his bicycle was completely lit up, was
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Speaker 1: riding at the end of the night, after a night
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Speaker 1: cycling with a group of other bicyclists, and a car
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Speaker 1: came and it just ran him down on a road
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Speaker 1: in Sacramento and left him there all alone until fortunately
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Speaker 1: a good samaritan driving past the scene saw Francisco and
1:43
Speaker 1: stopped the car and contacted emergency authorities. And he is
1:49
Speaker 1: still in medical sedation at a hospital right now, and
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Speaker 1: the driver who did this to him is still out there.
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Speaker 1: A bicyclist found unconscious after a brutal hit and run
2:02
Speaker 1: crash in Sacramento, still sedated, still fighting for his life,
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Speaker 1: breaking his family's heart and speaking of family joining me
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Speaker 1: right now. His mom, Alisa Castiano. Alisa Costiano has been
2:21
Speaker 1: at the hospital by the side of the bed, praying,
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Speaker 1: hoping for the best, and wanting answers. Alisa, thank you
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Speaker 1: so much for being with us. What can you tell
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Speaker 1: us about the night of the hit and run? The
2:33
Speaker 1: only thing that I can say is that I didn't
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Speaker 1: know about it, is that he was riding his bike
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Speaker 1: home and he got hit. I didn't find out till
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Speaker 1: thirty hours later that he was in the hospital. And
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Speaker 1: it's all I know is that when they took him in,
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Speaker 1: they took him in as John Doe, and they had
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Speaker 1: to do surgery on his brain right away, take the
3:01
Speaker 1: skull off, you know, because he was bleeding and swollen.
3:04
Speaker 1: We are talking about a bicyclist left on the side
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Speaker 1: of the road, unconscious after a brutal hit and run
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Speaker 1: crash in Sacramento today, his mom joining us, begging for information.
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Speaker 1: If you know anything, please call nine one six two
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Speaker 1: six four five four seven one. Right now, her son
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Speaker 1: Francisco still understoodation, still fighting for his life. He's had
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Speaker 1: to have part of his skull removed to relieve swelling
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Speaker 1: from a traumatic brain injury caused by a hit and
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Speaker 1: run driver that went off about their merry way, leaving
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Speaker 1: him face down unconscious early early on a Saturday morning.
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Speaker 1: And then it happens the passing driver finds him and
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Speaker 1: gets help. Two special guests joining me, Doctor Michelle Dupre,
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Speaker 1: medical examiner, author of Homicide Investigation Field Guide, explained to
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Speaker 1: me why part of his skull had to be removed
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Speaker 1: to reduce sa The brain has no place to go
4:02
Speaker 1: in an enclosed skull, so in order to to relieve
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Speaker 1: pressure from that, we need to remove part of that
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Speaker 1: so that it can expand without forcing additional injury to
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Speaker 1: the brain itself. Right now, the brother of Francisco, Jimmy,
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Speaker 1: is stating that he doesn't know if his brother will
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Speaker 1: have permanent damage, if he will die. It's very tough
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Speaker 1: for the family to see Francisco like this. The two
4:29
Speaker 1: brothers were out riding their bikes until just a few
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Speaker 1: hours before Francisco was hit was mowed down by a driver.
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Speaker 1: Now the brother had finished his bike ride and was
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Speaker 1: on his way home, had no idea that Francisco was
4:45
Speaker 1: lying face down on the side of the road. To
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Speaker 1: ask you, Wilcot, juvenile court judge, trial lawyer, you can
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Speaker 1: find her at aske you Wilcot dot com Ashley, the
4:54
Speaker 1: mindset it must take to just leave a person on
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Speaker 1: the side of the road facedown, knowing you've hit them. Yeah,
5:02
Speaker 1: there's no way to understand that, Nancy, because you know what,
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Speaker 1: even if you don't know what you hit, theoretically, let's
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Speaker 1: just say they were looking down, they knew they hit something.
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Speaker 1: They knew it had to be of a big size.
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Speaker 1: You would think any person with any conscious would at
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Speaker 1: least stop and see. Was it a deer, Was that
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Speaker 1: an animal? Was that a dog? God forbid it was
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Speaker 1: a person. No one would not stop to see what
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Speaker 1: they've done and what had happened. Now that's the scenario.
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Speaker 1: Maybe they didn't know what they hit. The unthinkable is
5:33
Speaker 1: they might have actually run a person over on purpose.
5:37
Speaker 1: We need answers now. We all remember one of the
5:40
Speaker 1: most famous drunk driving cases in recent history. Listened to
5:44
Speaker 1: our friend Matt Gutman an ABC. The story of a
5:46
Speaker 1: crash begins to be told by Ethan's blood alcohol content.
5:50
Speaker 1: It comes back three times the legal limit for an adult,
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Speaker 1: and that's three hours after the crash. I understand this
5:58
Speaker 1: is three hours of time he had for his body
6:00
Speaker 1: the clear alcohol out of his system. Speculation what his
6:03
Speaker 1: blood alcohol was at the time of the accident is
6:05
Speaker 1: through the roof. As Ethan awakes in a hospital bed.
6:09
Speaker 1: The sun also rises over Burlison Redder Road. It is
6:13
Speaker 1: Father's Day and the next day, Yeah, I found these
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Speaker 1: packages were my Father's Day cards have been filled out
6:24
Speaker 1: and my Father's Day gifts. We're there. I bet they
6:28
Speaker 1: were gone. There was no preparation, no time to say goodbyes. Yeah,
6:36
Speaker 1: you're hearing our friends at ABC twenty twenty following the
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Speaker 1: horrific crash by drunk driver affluenciteen Ethan Couch that brought
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Speaker 1: a lot of headlines to drunk driving and vehicular homicides.
6:50
Speaker 1: At this our prayers go on for Francisco Rodriguez. His
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Speaker 1: mom with us right now. Elisa Costiano, Elisa, what are
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Speaker 1: the doctors saying about your son? They don't know. It's
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Speaker 1: all unknown, but they're saying that he can have um,
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Speaker 1: he might not build a talk, he might not remember nothing,
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Speaker 1: he might have amnesia. Um, he might he might not
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Speaker 1: build a walk. They just don't know yet. They they're
7:17
Speaker 1: going to do an MRI. Then we'll build a no more.
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Speaker 1: But it's I just want him to wake up. You know,
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Speaker 1: if they changed his whole life. This is one thing
7:29
Speaker 1: changed my son's life and my life. So right now
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Speaker 1: they don't even know. They don't know too, Doctor Michelle
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Speaker 1: du Pray jointing me Medical examiner Dodger du Pray. Why
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Speaker 1: can't doctors give her hit? The family a Lisa Any
7:46
Speaker 1: answers Nancy, such a tough situation. When we have something
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Speaker 1: like traumatic by Andrew or TBI, it is a whole
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Speaker 1: multitude of signs and symptoms and it doesn't manifest itself
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Speaker 1: the same way in any two people. It depends on
8:00
Speaker 1: the severity of the injury, and it depends on the
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Speaker 1: part of the brain that was actually damaged, and so
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Speaker 1: we just don't know. Doctors can't determine those kinds of
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Speaker 1: things when something like this happens, Doctor dupre typically, how
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Speaker 1: long do they keep the persons sedated? And why do
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Speaker 1: they have Francisco still sedated? Well, Nancy, what are the
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Speaker 1: reasons to keep the person sedated? We put them in
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Speaker 1: a coma so that it doesn't do more brain damage,
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Speaker 1: so that it will help keep that swelling down. The
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Speaker 1: brain can relax, it doesn't have to work as hard,
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Speaker 1: and basically it just helps them to recover much better.
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Speaker 1: And basically we keep them in there for as long
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Speaker 1: as we need to until we're sure that that brain
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Speaker 1: swelling has stopped to prevent further injuries. So the longer
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Speaker 1: you keep them sedated, the more time it gives their
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Speaker 1: brain to heal and for the swelling to subside. Yes, yes,
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Speaker 1: that's correct, and it helps prevent the brain from continuing
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Speaker 1: to swell, you know, doctor dupree with me. Everyone is
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Speaker 1: Francisco's mom. At Lisa Costiano, I had a very very
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Speaker 1: dear family member riding a bike who was hit by
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Speaker 1: a van driven by a woman with three screaming kids
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Speaker 1: in the back. And my relative who I love deeply,
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Speaker 1: had a very similar treatment sedated for a long period
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Speaker 1: of time, a shunt which is like a tube put
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Speaker 1: in the skull for pressure on the brain to I mean,
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Speaker 1: you have to open the skull for the brain which
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Speaker 1: is swelling to it's like a bruise or when you
9:32
Speaker 1: get a lump on your arm, when you get hit
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Speaker 1: or you run into something. It has to go somewhere.
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Speaker 1: And if the brain goes up against the skull, it
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Speaker 1: damages the brain. But if you open the skull up,
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Speaker 1: it gives the brain a place to go to swell
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Speaker 1: up and then subside, and by putting a shunt or
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Speaker 1: a tube in it releases that pressure. And let me
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Speaker 1: just tell you my relative is doing really well now,
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Speaker 1: can walk and talk, and just a miraculous recovery. And
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Speaker 1: that is what I pray right now for Francisco Rodriguez.
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Speaker 1: His mom Elisa with us. Now, if you have information
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Speaker 1: to what brute ran him down and left him face
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Speaker 1: down for the Lord only knows how long, please call
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Speaker 1: nine one six two, six, four to five, four seven
10:23
Speaker 1: one repeat nine one six two six, four to five,
10:26
Speaker 1: four seven one Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. He's a
10:46
Speaker 1: big teddy bear, big teddy bear. He loves everybody. He
10:49
Speaker 1: loves to write and by it, he loves to put
10:51
Speaker 1: all those lights on. On Monday, Elisa Costiano's got a
10:54
Speaker 1: call from the hospital that no mother ever hopes to get.
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Speaker 1: And then when I walk in and I see him,
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Speaker 1: oh my god, it has tore me up. I see
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Speaker 1: my baby like that. My son came in as a
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Speaker 1: John Doe. So then when we came in, then when
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Speaker 1: in there, then I've seen him all in his bed.
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Speaker 1: He had surgery without us even knowing he had surgery.
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Speaker 1: In a statement you see, David's Medical Center said it
11:19
Speaker 1: makes every effort to identify a patient and find their
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Speaker 1: family whenever they come in without an ID. It went
11:25
Speaker 1: on to say they're sorry they weren't able to notify
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Speaker 1: the family any sooner. However, Castiano says the witness who
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Speaker 1: stopped to help her son told her he did have
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Speaker 1: an ID, which is why she can't understand why took
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Speaker 1: the hospital more than thirty hours to contact her. Well,
11:40
Speaker 1: I understand actually to doctor Michelle Duprey why they operated
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Speaker 1: before they found the family, because time is of the essence.
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Speaker 1: When you've got swelling at the brain, doctor Dupray, come
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Speaker 1: is of the essence. And the more that brain continues
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Speaker 1: to swell with something not being done, the more injury
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Speaker 1: and the more damage that it's done to that personal too.
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Speaker 1: Elsa Costiano, this is frances Goes mother. The doctors aren't
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Speaker 1: really telling you anything. What do you know about his condition?
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Speaker 1: What do you know about the night he was mowed
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Speaker 1: down by a hit and run? All I know that
12:12
Speaker 1: is that when he was just writing home and that
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Speaker 1: when they hit him. The witness just told me that
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Speaker 1: he was when she found him, he was grasping for
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Speaker 1: error and that he was shaking, and she told him,
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Speaker 1: don't die, don't die. Stay with me, Francisco, stay with me,
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Speaker 1: and and she just and and she just went, you know.
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Speaker 1: After that, she called the hospital to find out, Please
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Speaker 1: find the family, don't let him die, Please find the family.
12:45
Speaker 1: And she kept on going to the hospital to find out,
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Speaker 1: to find out if they contacted the family, and they
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Speaker 1: wouldn't tell her much either. Patcha Ellen colorin Crime online
12:55
Speaker 1: dot Com investigative reporter Ellen, is are even a description
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Speaker 1: of the car? Was there a traffic light, surveillance camera,
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Speaker 1: will anything? What can you tell me about the area? AKA, well, Nancy,
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Speaker 1: we do finally have a big, big lead here and
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Speaker 1: it is a surveillance video capture. UM, it's a little
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Speaker 1: bit grainy, but it's a but it's clearly a vehicle
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Speaker 1: that was at the scene. It's a Nissan A model.
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Speaker 1: It's a light colored probably white or silver or very
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Speaker 1: light gold. It's hard to say because it's black and white.
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Speaker 1: Surveillance footage. The rors that's a mirror, driver's side mirror
13:35
Speaker 1: or the passenger side door a mirror. I'm not sure
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Speaker 1: which one had fallen off the car and was left
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Speaker 1: behind at the scene. And that's how authorities were able
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Speaker 1: to put together the surveillance of video footage and UM
13:47
Speaker 1: figure out that it was that it was the Nissan.
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Speaker 1: So this is only just you know, within the last day, UM,
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Speaker 1: there's a lot of information being spread locally. There's there's
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Speaker 1: photos the family and authorities they are spreading the photos
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Speaker 1: of the vehicle and just asking anyone to come forward
14:01
Speaker 1: if they recognize that vehicle at all. We know what
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Speaker 1: we have to say with confidence at this point that
14:08
Speaker 1: whoever did this, they have to know who they are
14:11
Speaker 1: and they're out there and the reality is is that
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Speaker 1: Francisco is in no shape to say anything about what happened.
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Speaker 1: But that's a huge, huge clue actually will caught Nancy. Listen,
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Speaker 1: here's the thing. Yes, somebody knows something, the person who
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Speaker 1: did it, somebody in the car, they know what happened.
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Speaker 1: Somebody's going to come forward. This is a huge break
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Speaker 1: that there was surveillance matched with the car because of
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Speaker 1: the fact a mirror had been knocked off. This is
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Speaker 1: great news, great progress. Next step, whoever knows anything, even
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Speaker 1: if they'd think, well, it couldn't have been this person,
14:42
Speaker 1: it couldn't have been that car, that wouldn't have happened,
14:45
Speaker 1: they need to report it because this investigation is going
14:48
Speaker 1: to find who did it eventually. Taking a listen to
14:51
Speaker 1: our friends at Fox forty Sacramento. One writer who decked
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Speaker 1: his bike out in flashing lights before hitting Sacramento streets
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Speaker 1: with his cruising club. The night ended with another kind
15:01
Speaker 1: of flashing lights, the kind that signal tragedy. My son
15:05
Speaker 1: is fighting for his life right now and see him
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Speaker 1: like that, it is killing, breaking my heart. Alisa Castellano's son,
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Speaker 1: Francisco Rodriguez, has had to have part of his skull
15:17
Speaker 1: removed to relieve swelling from the traumatic brain injury hit
15:21
Speaker 1: and run driver cause when they left him face down
15:23
Speaker 1: and unconscious around two am Saturday morning, a passing driver
15:27
Speaker 1: at All Hammer in t Street found him and got
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Speaker 1: him help. They have him highly sedated. Um they're watching
15:33
Speaker 1: to make sure he doesn't get pneumonia or he doesn't
15:35
Speaker 1: have seizures. They just said it can take weeks. I
15:39
Speaker 1: don't know if he's just gonna wake up or not.
15:40
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's gonna be permly damage, if
15:43
Speaker 1: he's gonna diet here, I don't know. It's just swallow brother,
15:46
Speaker 1: and it's just what I mean right now. Stephen Lampley,
15:50
Speaker 1: you can find him at Stephen Lampley dot com. Detective
15:54
Speaker 1: and for a period of time traffic investigator Stephen Lampley.
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Speaker 1: This is a huge, big deal finding part of the car.
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Speaker 1: We think it's part of the car that mowed down
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Speaker 1: Francisco Nancy. It is a huge break in. Often times
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Speaker 1: in my own personal experience, when we have a hidden run,
16:12
Speaker 1: there's precious little information and there are no witnesses, and
16:15
Speaker 1: there's precious little to go on paint. We're really relegated
16:19
Speaker 1: to paint chips and entire marks. In this instance, we
16:23
Speaker 1: have a photo of a car, we have part of
16:25
Speaker 1: the car which is which is enormous, and I would
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Speaker 1: think at this point in time, at least I would
16:31
Speaker 1: hope that the investigators are online searching for this Nissan
16:36
Speaker 1: in the database, which you can do. You don't have
16:38
Speaker 1: type of tag number. You can do it by making
16:40
Speaker 1: modeling color and give a list of all of these
16:43
Speaker 1: vehicles which could be enormous Nancy. But it's this parting point,
16:46
Speaker 1: and I would also be wanting to know I'd be
16:49
Speaker 1: wanting to enhance this photo as well. Okay, let's talk
16:51
Speaker 1: about it old school when all you have are chips
16:54
Speaker 1: of paint and that's all you have to go on.
16:57
Speaker 1: Isn't it true that paint, if it's still the factory
17:02
Speaker 1: paint that was put on it when it was purchased,
17:05
Speaker 1: can be traced to a particular make and even model,
17:10
Speaker 1: because for instance, Chrysler versus you know, Sab versus Volkswagen,
17:17
Speaker 1: they all have unique colors. Those colors are made within
17:21
Speaker 1: their factories and those particular paint mixtures can be traced
17:26
Speaker 1: back to not only the manufacturer, but the year of
17:34
Speaker 1: the make and the model. They don't use the same
17:37
Speaker 1: Lets just say Midnight Blue VW for such. To see
17:43
Speaker 1: a Jetta as opposed to a bug, it's different, they
17:47
Speaker 1: have different colors. It's very significant the information you can
17:52
Speaker 1: get from even a paint chip. So tell me, Stephen Lampley,
17:57
Speaker 1: former traffic investigator, how it's done with just a paint chip.
18:02
Speaker 1: Want to answer, you're right, what do you if you
18:04
Speaker 1: have a paint hip, Typically, at least in the modern
18:07
Speaker 1: and modern models, you have four layers. You have two
18:09
Speaker 1: layers of base or a primer, then you have the
18:12
Speaker 1: color coat, and then you have the clear cooat so
18:15
Speaker 1: and like you said, each manufacturer has their own pigment,
18:19
Speaker 1: their own makeup, and by simply taking that and what
18:24
Speaker 1: they usually do is they'll go in and can clip
18:26
Speaker 1: or cut part of that paint hip and then they
18:29
Speaker 1: can identify the layers and then go back and look
18:32
Speaker 1: into the database and see what manufacturer had that type
18:35
Speaker 1: of that type of paint, what the year in making
18:38
Speaker 1: model is. Right now, Francisco Rodriguez remains sedated hospitalized at
18:43
Speaker 1: You see Davids Medical Center, his family hoping praying for
18:48
Speaker 1: the best. Who ran down Francisco Rodriguez Crime Stories with
19:06
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace. According to Sacramento Police, hit and run happened
19:15
Speaker 1: here the intersection of T and Alhambra. Francisco Rodriguez, who
19:19
Speaker 1: friends and family called Paco, had just installed led lights
19:23
Speaker 1: on his bike the night of the crash and lit up.
19:26
Speaker 1: I don't know how anybody could have not seen him
19:29
Speaker 1: on that bike. It was all red lit up. Paco's
19:32
Speaker 1: friends and family or posting flyers around Sacramento tonight hoping
19:35
Speaker 1: anyone with information will call the police. I want them
19:39
Speaker 1: to turn themselves in. How dare you take my son
19:42
Speaker 1: like that and heard him and leave him there, didn't
19:44
Speaker 1: stop to help him. How can anybody have a heart
19:48
Speaker 1: and how can they do that leave somebody there to die?
19:51
Speaker 1: How do you tell that it is a Nissan? How
19:54
Speaker 1: do you know that? What can we learn from part
19:58
Speaker 1: of a side view mirror? Ak Ellen colaurin Crime Online
20:01
Speaker 1: dot Com investigative reporter. What can you tell me about
20:05
Speaker 1: the placement of the mirror? I mean, how are we
20:07
Speaker 1: connecting it back to the person that ran down Francisco
20:11
Speaker 1: um from what I can gather, Nancy, it appears that
20:15
Speaker 1: they had the mirror at at the scene before they
20:19
Speaker 1: were they had their surveillance footage that had had the
20:23
Speaker 1: grainy image of the car which does not show the
20:25
Speaker 1: license late. So from what I can put together, it
20:29
Speaker 1: seems like they already had that piece of evidence and
20:33
Speaker 1: then seeing the surveillance photo of the car helped them
20:38
Speaker 1: confirm what the what the model was. So back to
20:41
Speaker 1: you Stephen Lampley at Stephen Lampley dot com, detective and
20:46
Speaker 1: former traffic investigator. There are whole teams I detectives that
20:50
Speaker 1: work in theft and car I D How can you
20:54
Speaker 1: look at a car at a distance and know what
20:57
Speaker 1: kind of car it is? Individual car has different attributes
21:02
Speaker 1: about a different characteristics, different different manufacturing processes. And you
21:07
Speaker 1: can take a piece of a car and even if
21:10
Speaker 1: you don't yourself know what that car they car, what
21:16
Speaker 1: that piece came off of, there are databases that you
21:18
Speaker 1: can go to and it'll tell you. It'll tell you
21:21
Speaker 1: all there. There's all kinds of a databases, databases on
21:23
Speaker 1: paint shift, databases on tire tread is just a simple
21:27
Speaker 1: matter may not be so simple, but a simple matter
21:30
Speaker 1: of going back and looking into the database and seeing
21:31
Speaker 1: what car they came off of. And we were saying
21:34
Speaker 1: make and model. What I mean by that? For example,
21:36
Speaker 1: Toyota is a car, make the model will be Let's
21:41
Speaker 1: just pretend camera, the make is a Toyota, the camera
21:45
Speaker 1: is the model. The make and model, the year, the
21:49
Speaker 1: body style, the trim, all of these have implication on
21:54
Speaker 1: what kind of car it is. For instance, one year
21:57
Speaker 1: they put trim down the side of a Camry. The
22:00
Speaker 1: next year they may change the trim. Let's just say,
22:04
Speaker 1: and after the passenger door, all right, the front door.
22:09
Speaker 1: They change it every year in some minor way. So
22:13
Speaker 1: if you can enhance that grainy video, you're on the
22:16
Speaker 1: right track, Ashley Wilcott, Is it making sense? Absolutely makes sense, Nancy.
22:21
Speaker 1: And do you know there's a trial that's going on
22:23
Speaker 1: right now. And in this trial, they have surveillance of
22:26
Speaker 1: a pickup truck and it's very grainy, and all they
22:29
Speaker 1: can really deal is it's a pickup truck. But guess what,
22:32
Speaker 1: there's other pieces of evidence that they've been able to
22:35
Speaker 1: narrow down the type of pickup truck and actually match
22:39
Speaker 1: it to a potential suspect. So they have a lot
22:43
Speaker 1: compared to a lot of scenes. They have a lot
22:47
Speaker 1: to go on. I think it's a huge break. It's
22:49
Speaker 1: going to open this case wide open, and I'm confident
22:52
Speaker 1: eventually they are gonna find who did this, but it
22:55
Speaker 1: needs to be sooner rather than later. Another thing, you
22:58
Speaker 1: think it's like a needle in a hasty back, it's not.
23:01
Speaker 1: You've also got body styles. Manufacturers might make a certain
23:05
Speaker 1: car model with several different body styles. For instance, we're
23:09
Speaker 1: saying Nissan. Let's just pretend. Okay, let's say it's a
23:13
Speaker 1: two thy eighteen Nissan. Is it a sedan? Is it
23:17
Speaker 1: a coop? Is it a hatchback? Is a convertible? Is
23:21
Speaker 1: it a wagon? Is it an suv? What I'm saying,
23:24
Speaker 1: is is it this true? Stephen Lampley, It's not as
23:27
Speaker 1: wide as it sounds. Yes, I know it's a big city.
23:31
Speaker 1: But when you start with a Nissan, then you narrow
23:35
Speaker 1: down to this color, and you narrow it down to
23:38
Speaker 1: which Nissan has that type of side mirror. Okay, obviously,
23:43
Speaker 1: is it a Nissan truck? Is it a Nissan coop?
23:45
Speaker 1: Is a Nissan hatchback? Then you start you start isolating
23:50
Speaker 1: the pool of those cars in the area. I mean,
23:55
Speaker 1: if they could get that much, is there a way
23:57
Speaker 1: also they could have gotten even a fragment of the
24:00
Speaker 1: tag ID. So Stephen Lampley explain to me how you
24:04
Speaker 1: isolate this car down and then you see where the
24:08
Speaker 1: car is. Has it been wrecked? Is it that a commission?
24:11
Speaker 1: Has it been sold? You can look that up online
24:14
Speaker 1: and bit by bit, day by day you narrow it down. Lampley,
24:19
Speaker 1: that's right, Nancy. You go on there and let's just say,
24:22
Speaker 1: for instance, we have a light color to vehicle. I
24:24
Speaker 1: don't know if it's white, gray, blue, even a light
24:27
Speaker 1: red and dark. And you know as well as I do,
24:30
Speaker 1: it might the colors appear to be one thing, and
24:33
Speaker 1: they're not because of the reception of our eyes. So
24:37
Speaker 1: let's say we have a we have a Nissan, and
24:40
Speaker 1: let's say we this looks like a so install model
24:43
Speaker 1: of that car. It's probably a year range. So you
24:47
Speaker 1: go into the computer the police department can and get
24:50
Speaker 1: a listing of all vehicles that match those parameters, and
24:55
Speaker 1: then you go back and say, okay, which one of these,
24:58
Speaker 1: uh this we know? Well, let's let's let's eliminate these.
25:02
Speaker 1: Let's eliminate these let's eliminate these and slowly you chip
25:06
Speaker 1: away at this until you come down to a hopefully
25:09
Speaker 1: more manageable database of vehicles you can start checking on. Yeah,
25:12
Speaker 1: and we know the correct color because they've got that
25:14
Speaker 1: side mirror. Joining me Francisco's mother, Alisa Costiano. Alisa, what
25:22
Speaker 1: if anything are police telling you about identifying They didn't
25:26
Speaker 1: run driver. All they said is that is that they've
25:29
Speaker 1: got the mirror, and that that's all they've Palas said
25:32
Speaker 1: that the video didn't show good coverage because it was grainy, blurry.
25:37
Speaker 1: They couldn't get the license plate on it. All they
25:41
Speaker 1: have is the mirror. If they take the mirror down
25:43
Speaker 1: to the Nissan deal, I forget the computer. Those guys
25:46
Speaker 1: and women that sell these cars every single day. It's
25:51
Speaker 1: just like me looking at a set of facts and
25:52
Speaker 1: I go, Okay, that's the theft. By receiving, that's theft.
25:55
Speaker 1: By taking, that's theft. By deception. I mean, just as
25:58
Speaker 1: easy as for me read a police report and tell
26:01
Speaker 1: you what the grand jury should charge with. They can
26:03
Speaker 1: look at this and go, oh, yeah, that's off a Nissan.
26:06
Speaker 1: What is a Nissan CenTra? Is that a Nisa? Okay?
26:09
Speaker 1: And Jackie's here telling me about Nissans, the Nissan expert.
26:13
Speaker 1: I mean, they can look very simply and that go,
26:17
Speaker 1: oh yeah, that's off last year's blah blah blah and
26:20
Speaker 1: Nissan CenTra and this is um Ocean pearl color and
26:25
Speaker 1: they had that color, you know, for two years in
26:28
Speaker 1: seventeen and eighteen. Keep talking, keep talking. I mean that's
26:34
Speaker 1: their bread and butter, that's their trade. They know this. Man.
26:38
Speaker 1: I'd take that mirror straight down to the Nissan dealership
26:41
Speaker 1: and get some answers, and then another thing, think about it,
26:45
Speaker 1: as you wild Cup, I would start as at the
26:48
Speaker 1: location where the incident happened, and I go out maybe
26:52
Speaker 1: five blocks, and I'd find, if I could, as best
26:55
Speaker 1: as they could, every Nissan, let's just say a Nissan CenTra, okay,
27:00
Speaker 1: Nissan Sentra owner within those blocks. Then move out. And yes,
27:04
Speaker 1: I know they could have resold it. I know that,
27:07
Speaker 1: but you have to start somewhere. That's where I would start. Ashley, Oh,
27:11
Speaker 1: agree completely. And not only that, but think about this.
27:14
Speaker 1: It's missing a mirror and who knows if they're going
27:17
Speaker 1: to go get it fixed or not, but they may not.
27:19
Speaker 1: So it's important not only in starting in that inner
27:21
Speaker 1: circle search. Remember this was two am, so there's a
27:25
Speaker 1: good chance whoever was on the road at two am
27:27
Speaker 1: might have been close to their home or wherever they
27:29
Speaker 1: were going and parking the car. So you need to
27:31
Speaker 1: start with that circumference. Then expand your search. You need
27:35
Speaker 1: to look for this type of Nissan, and you need
27:36
Speaker 1: to look for one that's missing a mirror. And you
27:38
Speaker 1: need to canvas and ask people if not only do
27:41
Speaker 1: they know if anyone drives this type of car, but
27:44
Speaker 1: this type of car or a car that's missing a
27:47
Speaker 1: specific mirror, because that's another clue. Yeah, and when you
27:51
Speaker 1: get your mirror, your SI mirror totally whacked off, it
27:55
Speaker 1: takes a minute. I'm talking about weeks, days or weeks
28:00
Speaker 1: where you can get that part in. Then you gotta
28:02
Speaker 1: take it and get it fixed. Right now, everybody, A
28:05
Speaker 1: mother is begging for help to identify a hit and
28:08
Speaker 1: run driver who leaves her son, her boy, seriously injured.
28:27
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She was about to turn
28:32
Speaker 1: twenty one and had just gotten a new job at
28:34
Speaker 1: Setting Now a hospital. Now, the family of Jennifer Lopez
28:38
Speaker 1: wants the driver who took her life to do the
28:40
Speaker 1: right thing. Turn yourself in because regardless of what it is,
28:44
Speaker 1: it's gonna take you wherever you go. You killed a person.
28:47
Speaker 1: This surveillance video shows the moment of impact a Mitsubishi's
28:51
Speaker 1: slamming into Lopez's Nissan at the corner of a Laundrey
28:54
Speaker 1: Boulevard and Bullets around nine last night. I saw that
28:57
Speaker 1: guy get out to the track, and Catalina Tapia told
29:03
Speaker 1: us she witnessed the crash from her home. Her own
29:06
Speaker 1: car badly damaged the stop sign next to its, showing
29:08
Speaker 1: the force of a collision. We watched surveillance video from
29:11
Speaker 1: two different angles. Both appear to show the driver run
29:14
Speaker 1: the stop sign at high speed. When first responders arrived,
29:17
Speaker 1: she was declared dead at the scene. Her cousin calls
29:19
Speaker 1: her a quiet person who kept to herself and who
29:22
Speaker 1: was very nice. If you know, if you're watching this,
29:25
Speaker 1: let us go to the police station, because you left
29:28
Speaker 1: a mother and the family. You're hearing our friend Ted
29:33
Speaker 1: Chin at NBC four LA and another family begging for
29:37
Speaker 1: answers after a hit and run takes off, leaving a
29:40
Speaker 1: young mother dead. In this case, Francisco Rodriguez is still
29:45
Speaker 1: in the hospital under heavy sedation. The hospital doctor's keeping
29:50
Speaker 1: him on her sedation to hopefully allow his brain trauma
29:54
Speaker 1: to heal, and joining me. His mother, Elisa Casciano, begging
30:00
Speaker 1: or that person to come forward, that person that mowed
30:03
Speaker 1: down her son, her boy. If you have information, please
30:08
Speaker 1: call Sacramento Police nine one six two six four five
30:12
Speaker 1: four seven one now. According to police, this incident occurred
30:18
Speaker 1: at Alhambra Boulevard. A Nissan type vehicle fled the scene
30:23
Speaker 1: immediately after. To Elsa Costiano, this is Francisco's mother, What
30:30
Speaker 1: did it do to you? What did you feel? What
30:34
Speaker 1: did you think when you first heard and how did
30:37
Speaker 1: you hear Francisco had been injured. They got a hold
30:41
Speaker 1: of my son, Jimmy, and he called me and said
30:45
Speaker 1: mom called the hospital, and then when I called the hospital,
30:49
Speaker 1: they just said that they couldn't tell me anything because
30:52
Speaker 1: he's John Doe and I'd have to go and claim him.
30:55
Speaker 1: And so I merely my heart just oh my god,
31:00
Speaker 1: it's just it was a nightmare. It's still a nightmare
31:03
Speaker 1: that so when I went over there and I've seen
31:06
Speaker 1: him all machined up and stuff and just just killed me.
31:11
Speaker 1: It's changed everything, my whole life. My son's life and
31:16
Speaker 1: to see him laid in that bed and not waking up,
31:19
Speaker 1: it's just breaking my heart. I'm just I'm trying to
31:24
Speaker 1: hold it together and to see him there and I
31:28
Speaker 1: want him just to wake up and he's not waking up,
31:31
Speaker 1: and it just I just I want him to be okay.
31:34
Speaker 1: I want him to to wake up and be able
31:37
Speaker 1: to talk and be able to do everything he does
31:43
Speaker 1: every day. It just it just kills me. I'm i cry,
31:47
Speaker 1: you know. And he had a video he made a
31:51
Speaker 1: video for me on my birthday and I'd lay that
31:53
Speaker 1: over and over and over um because he loves me dearly,
31:57
Speaker 1: you know. And and I just listened to that videal
32:00
Speaker 1: day and night. Want him to wake up. He made
32:03
Speaker 1: it too week for this accident with me. As Francisco's
32:07
Speaker 1: mother Alisa Costiano begging for answers to doctor Michelle Dupre,
32:17
Speaker 1: medical examiner and author, doctor Dupree, recoveries do happen? The
32:24
Speaker 1: fact that he is still sedated. They are keeping him
32:27
Speaker 1: sedated to give his body a chance to heal. What
32:30
Speaker 1: does that mean? Why are they doing it? Doctor Nancy.
32:34
Speaker 1: They're doing that to give the body time to rest.
32:37
Speaker 1: And absolutely there's chances for recovery. It's really more of
32:41
Speaker 1: a functional recovery because the functions of the brain of
32:45
Speaker 1: what are usually impacted in these kinds of cases, and
32:48
Speaker 1: so we see recovery all the time, but it is uncertain.
32:51
Speaker 1: We just don't know. At this point in time, we
32:53
Speaker 1: are talking about a hit and run where Francisco Rodriguez
32:58
Speaker 1: is left by this side of the road, face down.
33:03
Speaker 1: Stephen Lampley Detective Traffic investigator or Stephen Lampley dot Com.
33:08
Speaker 1: I've often wondered that the frame of mind, and I've
33:13
Speaker 1: covered and investigated so many hit and runs, what mentality
33:19
Speaker 1: that is to just leave someone on the side of
33:23
Speaker 1: the road. I mean, I wouldn't even do that to
33:25
Speaker 1: an animal, much less a human with a mom with Elisa,
33:32
Speaker 1: you know, somewhere wondering where is my boy? I mean,
33:38
Speaker 1: you've dealt with this so many times, Stephen. What have
33:41
Speaker 1: you observed in hit and run defendants? Well, they say
33:45
Speaker 1: they don't obviously they don't care. It's all about them,
33:47
Speaker 1: and it's almost a psychopathic mentality. Not every time, but
33:51
Speaker 1: you've got people that are going to perhaps violate the law.
33:55
Speaker 1: This this person could have been a DUI, could have
33:57
Speaker 1: been on drugs, may have had warrant, this card may
34:01
Speaker 1: have been stolen. Who knows what the circumstances, but it's
34:04
Speaker 1: all about them and they don't care who they had
34:07
Speaker 1: to hurt in order to get away too. Ashley Wilcott,
34:10
Speaker 1: judge lawyer you can see or Ashley Wilcott dot com
34:13
Speaker 1: Ashley the frame of mind to me as someone that
34:16
Speaker 1: can detach themselves from what they've done. Yes, and so
34:19
Speaker 1: let me suggest this number one. If they were intoxicated
34:22
Speaker 1: or impaired, I think by now they would have come
34:26
Speaker 1: forward and said, oh, I think they would have turned
34:29
Speaker 1: themselves in. Otherwise, I think it's exactly what you said.
34:33
Speaker 1: It's somebody who detached remove themselves from it in denial,
34:38
Speaker 1: can't believe it and aren't coming forward. And I cannot
34:41
Speaker 1: understand that mentality either. But then again, as rational people,
34:45
Speaker 1: we don't always understand the mentality of criminals. At this point,
34:49
Speaker 1: whoever did this as a criminal, they need to come forward.
34:52
Speaker 1: Sacramento Police Department says there is a reward of at
34:55
Speaker 1: least one thousand dollars for any information. There's a go
35:00
Speaker 1: fund me set up help Francisco Paco with recovery. I'm
35:05
Speaker 1: looking at it right now. He is still unconscious. He
35:10
Speaker 1: was mowed down by an unknown person and what we
35:12
Speaker 1: think is a Nissan a hit and run on a Saturday,
35:17
Speaker 1: left lying on the side of the road face down
35:21
Speaker 1: severe injuries. The family is asking for help in identifying
35:26
Speaker 1: who did this. He had his very first surgery to
35:30
Speaker 1: reduce pressure on his brain to allow healing. What we
35:36
Speaker 1: know right now the police are looking for a particular
35:40
Speaker 1: color of a Nissan missing a side mirror. Police number
35:46
Speaker 1: nine one six eight zero eight zero six two zero
35:50
Speaker 1: repeat nine one six eight zero eight zero six two zero.
35:56
Speaker 1: Back to Francisco's mother, Elisa, I'm trying to figure out
36:01
Speaker 1: from what you're telling me exactly how much progress police
36:05
Speaker 1: have made in finding this person. I got a very
36:08
Speaker 1: strong feeling that they were drunk driving, so that's what
36:11
Speaker 1: the police officers. The detective mentioned that I really haven't
36:16
Speaker 1: really talked to them much. It was hard for them
36:19
Speaker 1: to get a hold of them first of all, and
36:21
Speaker 1: I have a niece that is dealing with him that
36:25
Speaker 1: we haven't heard anything else on that, you know. I'm
36:27
Speaker 1: looking at his bike like you told me when you
36:30
Speaker 1: say it was lit up, Jackie, have you seen this
36:33
Speaker 1: bike it's really lit up. I mean both wheels are
36:37
Speaker 1: completely lit. It looks like with red lights. The body
36:41
Speaker 1: of the bike is lit everything basically every part of
36:47
Speaker 1: the bike is lit up. It's like crazy lights on here.
36:51
Speaker 1: How could you not see it now? I know what
36:53
Speaker 1: you mean A Lisa, Yeah, it's he lit it up
36:57
Speaker 1: because you know here in Sacramento we do second Saturday
37:01
Speaker 1: bike rights and every week and they have bike rights
37:03
Speaker 1: and it's all about decking up your bikes with all
37:05
Speaker 1: these lights, you know, to be safe at night. And
37:09
Speaker 1: so he just he got all those that day and
37:11
Speaker 1: put them all on there. That day. Her son came
37:14
Speaker 1: into the hospital as a quote John Doe. They had
37:18
Speaker 1: no idea who he was, no idea whose family is.
37:22
Speaker 1: And today his mother begging for answers to Francisco's mother,
37:26
Speaker 1: Elisa Costigano, what is your message to the person that
37:30
Speaker 1: mowed down Francisco. Please turn yourself in, Please turn yourself in,
37:36
Speaker 1: do the right thing. You need to do the right thing.
37:40
Speaker 1: Turn yourself in because we need to find out who
37:43
Speaker 1: did this. We need to find out who did this.
37:47
Speaker 1: You need to turn yourself in. There again, is a
37:51
Speaker 1: go fund me right now to help Francisco Rodriguez and
37:56
Speaker 1: his mother also lift up your prayers for his recovery.
38:02
Speaker 1: Nancy Grace Crime Story signing off goodbye friend,