Juan Quiroz was a family man, no matter how old his kids got.
“He’ll always call us, he’ll always hug us, kiss us, all that stuff,” said Aldair, Quiroz’s 24-year-old son. “Like, even as a 24-year-old man… that love never ran out.”
But that love was cut short last month, when Quiroz was driving to work around 6:30 a.m. on October 21.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said a white truck towing a white dump trailer (an 18-wheeler) was going northbound on the Dallas North Tollway near Spring Creek Parkway in Plano “when the driver made an unsafe lane change,” hitting Quiroz’s car.
DPS said that caused Quiroz’s car to crash into the concrete wall and roll over.
They said two other cars then hit Quiroz’s car.
The 47-year-old father of four was the only one who died.
The driver of the truck did not stop.
DPS released pictures of the truck on Friday, seeking the public’s help. The truck does not appear to have a license plate.
Investigators said the truck might be damaged on the ride side of the front bumper and/or the front right fender.
The North Texas Crime Stoppers is offering up to $5,000 for information that leads to the arrest and indictment of the driver.
Anonymous tips can be sent to 877-373-8477 or on the North Texas Crime Stoppers website, using TX DPS Case # TX2025-1816353.
“I’m mad at the driver not choosing to stop, or even care about what they did. They just kept going like nothing had just happened,” said Lama, Quiroz’s 21-year-old daughter.
She wants the driver to know that justice will be served.
“The pendulum always swings back. And the scales always balance themselves at the end of the day,” she said. “You might turn yourself in for the good. Or not. Just know that it’s going to come back at you.”
Aldair is worried that the reckless driver, still on the loose, may hurt someone else, too.
“You never know if this can happen to anybody else, and like that’s my biggest fear, too. I don’t think I would wish this on like, anybody,” he said.
Isabella, 14, said the grief has been hard to process; she couldn’t cry at her dad’s funeral, even though “it felt like I was being stabbed.”
Quiroz also leaves behind a seven-year-old.
The children say their provider and protector is gone.
“And I feel vulnerable because I don’t have a shield,” Lama said.
But they’ll make sure his love never runs out.
“There won’t be a day where I won’t think of him, ‘til the day I’m gone, myself,” Lama said.
