NOGALES, AZ — A mother is mourning tonight for a daughter shot and killed as she traveled down I-19 near Green Valley early Saturday night.
A man and his three year old child were also hurt in the gunfire.
The suspect, Mateo Zavala, surrendered to authorities.
Susan Stemper is dealing with the shock of a daughter stolen away in a burst of rage and gunfire but shocked too at the surge of support from friends remembering the love, kindness and faith in God that flowed from her daughter Marilyn Pacheco.
"And these people are coming to me now and telling me Marilyn was the first person I met in Tucson. She was my first friend. She helped me out. She gave me a place to stay."
There is a GoFundMe accountwhere friends are stepping up to help with funeral expenses.
But Marilyn Pacheco had a rocky relationship with Mateo Zavala. Susan Stemper says he sent an obscene Facebook message to tell her he didn't want to be with her anymore.
"And then follow that up with calling her all sorts of names and calling her a million times at three o'clock in the morning while she was asleep which made him more angry because he wasn't getting a response."
She says Zavala was in California but showed up uninvited and demanded to take Marilyn's daughter, Natalie, to the movies. He was turned down.
Susan Stemper says her daughter Marilyn was not trying to escape Zavala when she got in a car with a friend and that man's three year old daughter. She was just moving on with her life. She says Marilyn let Zavala know the girl in the car was not Natalie.
"And what her friend believes was that was the go-ahead for him in his mind to do what he did."
Court records say Zavala told a Pima County deputy he did shoot into the car. MarIlyn Pacheco died of her wounds. The man and his daughter were hit too, but their wounds were less serious.
Susan Stemper says she, and especially Marilyn's daughter Natalie would like to ask Mateo Zavala why---and thinks her daughter would feel guilty that the trouble she had with Mateo Zavala accidentally put other people in danger.
