Around 6:15 a.m. Thursday, Montgomery County Hospital District medics and the South Montgomery County Fire Department were dispatched to a reported auto-pedestrian accident on Madelin Manor just off Riley Fuzzel Road. Dispatchers had information that a 50-year-old mother was lying in the street bleeding and CPR was being initiated.
When the first units arrived, the woman went into traumatic arrest and was pronounced dead on the scene at 6:53 a.m.
According to Eric Morgan, a neighbor and family friend, the woman had taken her teenage son to the school bus stop. The son then realized he had forgotten something and they returned to their home where he went inside while she waited. The son heard a bang, Morgan said, and came out to find his mother lying on the street in the middle of the cul-de-sac. She was almost 33 feet behind the family van, a 2007 Hyundai entourage, which had come to rest against a fire hydrant, after the driver side door was peeled back across the fender.
Morgan said another neighbor looked out and saw the teen holding his mother in the street and called 911.
Just after Texas Department of Public Safety units arrived to begin the investigation, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office was notified to dispatch detectives to the scene. The Texas Rangers also responded. After almost 8 hours of investigation, law enforcement still was not prepared to offer an explanation for the woman’s death and said the investigation was continuing.
According to Morgan, one of the neighbors had a video camera that showed the van in motion. He said it did not show the victim falling, but showed the movement of the van when it apparently rolled over her.
At 3 p.m. detectives concluded their investigation at the scene and the victim Martha Leti Uruchurtu/Sanz, 49, of 28426 Madelin Manor was taken by Metcalf Funeral Directors to the Montgomery County Forensic Center for autopsy.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department dispatched one of their own wreckers to the scene to take the van back to the Crime Lab at the Sheriff’s Office for additional processing.
According to Trooper Eric Burse with the Texas Department of Public Safety, they are not yet calling the incident an auto-pedestrian accident. Burse said there was something that made investigators “uncomfortable” and they wanted to make sure they were very thorough.
Burse said investigators needed to make sure their “t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted before reaching a final conclusion. He said the crash scene is being investigated by DPS, and the death scene by MCSO.
“There are some things we’re not happy with,” Burse said. “When we’re uncomfortable with something we want to make sure we do it right.”
He would not go into detail regarding the issues that raised red flags, nor would hive give any possible scenario to explain the bizarre scene.
“It’s just too soon right now,” Burse said.
Numerous friends sat on the curb waiting for answers about the tragedy. Many of them were part of a networking business with the victim, and all said she was very successful and motivational. They said the son who found her is the youngest of three, with the oldest in college and another in between.
Uruchurtu/Sanz’s neighbor said she was “a friend to everyone,” and had a “lovely” and nice” family.
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