Texas Department of Public Safety troopers are looking for a run-a-way driver who may have caused a car accident that killed a 5-year-old girl.
Family members say Lily Bunker was a vivacious, beautiful little girl and she knew how special she was.
"She'd tell everybody, 'did you see my school picture?' She would tell us that, 'it's so beautiful.' It's her telling everyone how beautiful she is,” Mia Bunker said of her daughter.
That outgoing personality is what mom Mia Bunker will miss the most. Lily died five days before Halloween on her way to school. She was in the kindergarten at Prairie Lea schools in Caldwell County. She loved animals, especially horses.
"She was always trying to convince us to get her a horse. She was bound and determined she was going to get one. Now it just feels like we're never going to be able to do that,” Bunker said.
For the past few weeks, State Highway 80 has been packed with construction crews and big trucks hauling gravel. The four lane road is being reduced to two lanes. Soon, there will be a big shoulder on either side. The project is intended to make the drive safer.
On October 26, it was four lanes. Witnesses say the driver of an 18-wheel gravel truck attempted to switch lanes just before approaching FM 1977. The driver clipped a Mercedes in the next lane. It sent that Mercedes into oncoming traffic. It struck the back of Bunker's Camero where Lily and her 7-year-old brother Jamie were sitting.
"I looked back at Jamie and he said 'momma I'm fine, I'm fine' and I turned around and I unbuckle and I look at Lily and she was just there. She's slumped over,” Bunker said.
The truck driver who caused the accident, never stopped.
Lily died that night. While at the hospital, Bunker had plaster molds made of her tiny hands. Memories of her are everywhere. The pain is so great that the family can barely stand to come home. In order to heal, they say they need the truck driver to come forward.
"People make mistakes we understand that, to man up and say there is a chance that I did do this. Don't act like you didn't know, you didn't realize. We know we'll never get her back but at least we'll know she didn't die in vain. She wasn't just another kid who got hit on the highway,” Bunker said.
Troopers describe the gravel truck as a white or gray 18-wheeler with bottom- or rear-dumping capability. The truck driver could face the felony charge of failure to stop and render aid. If you can help solve this case, call DPS at 512-398-4333.
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