Three memorials vandalized in Escondido
ESCONDIDO, Calif. (FOX 5/KUSI) -- Three memorials were vandalized in Escondido over the weekend near the intersection of North Broadway and West Country Club, leaving the families wondering who did this and why someone would destroy their loved ones' memorials.
“His laugh, his jokes, taking him to his practices, his baseball games, everything, there’s an emptiness in my heart," Norma Tapia said.
Her son, 13-year-old Rodrigo David Tapia Jr., who went by Junior, died in a DUI crash near the intersection in April 2024.
“Sometimes because we can't go to the cemetery, we come and visit him here," Tapia said, pointing to the memorial set up on the side of the road.
Instead of getting ready for what should have been Junior's first day of high school on Tuesday, his parents spent time cleaning up his memorial after it was vandalized over the weekend.
“I was devastated. Like, why could somebody do this, you know?" Tapia said.
She said the vandals threw the items from the memorial all over the ground and broke a light, but didn't steal anything, leaving some of the most precious items still there.
"The cross meant a lot. That was the last time he danced on that dance floor, and they made it into a cross as a memory," she added.
Junior was on his way home from a quinceañera when he was killed as a passenger in the crash.
His sister's boyfriend, Alexander Tito Oroz, was arrested on suspicion of DUI and driving extremely fast when he blew through a red light. The prosecuting attorneys during his arraignment in May 2024 said that he as driving between 91-119 miles per hour.
Junior's memorial wasn't the only one destroyed. Two others on the same street were vandalized.
“I had to get new plants, I had to get new lighting," Ruby Dierros Espino said.
She spent Monday morning cleaning up and redoing her mom's memorial. She said her mom, Veronica Espino, was hit and killed by a drunk driver in on Dec. 20, 2020.
She redecorates her mom's memorial through the seasons.
“You know I maintain it pretty well and I want my mom’s memory to still live," she added.
Now she's left with the same questions as the Tapia family -- who did this, and why?
“It’s been here almost 5 years and I’ve never had an issue before yesterday so I don’t know who would want to vandalize it just because," she said. “A lot of accidents happen on this intersection and they happen and they tend to forget, so I really want to keep it here to remind people to drive slower, to not drink and drive."
Escondido police say vandalism under $400 would be considered a misdemeanor, and without any video or eyewitness, it limits their ability to investigate.
Junior's parents are looking into installing cameras facing their son's memorial to try and prevent this from happening again.
