PHOENIX — The wife of a man found shot to death in his tow truck is speaking out for the first time.
This comes just one day after Lizeth Sanchez’s husband,Evanni Corona, was laid to rest.
It also happens to be one day after Corona’s suspected killer, Luis Garcia, was arrested.
Corona’s wife says Evanni’s passing has left their family with a huge void in their hearts.
Sanchez tells ABC15 she and her family fled from violence in Mexico, three years ago, coming into the U.S. as refugees.
They thought this would be their best shot at a better life.
Though she says that was taken from them on September 1, 2021, when Corona was shot near 35th Avenue and Buckeye.
“Sometimes I feel like this is just a nightmare. My head doesn't think of another thing other than where is he? I still wait for him to come home, and he doesn’t open the door,” she told ABC15 in Spanish.
Evanni Corona is leaving behind three young children.
The youngest is only three years old, and she still doesn’t know her daddy is gone.
“She yells. She cries. She asks for her dad. She tells me that she wants her dad here with her. Mom, I want my dad here with me. How am I going to give him to her?” she said in tears.
Heartbroken and inconsolable, Sanchez is still trying to wrap her head around what happened.
“Everything is just how he left it. I go into the closet and see his clothes, and I feel like I am going to see him there… and he isn’t here anymore,” she said.
She says her husband came home sometime in June and was very scared.
Sanchez tells ABC15 Corona told her he was getting death threats from a man named Luis Garcia.
“He read me a message, one time, that said, ‘you’re going to pay with what you love most’ and he was scared for me and the kids,” she added.
The Phoenix Police Department’s report backs that up, stating the suspected killer, Luis Garcia, threatened Corona’s life the week leading up to his death.
Corona’s wife says the vendetta started after Garcia and Corona got into an argument involving gunfire at the tow yard where Corona worked.
She says Garcia shot Corona three times.
“He injured his head, he injured his leg in the back, and his heel.”
While Sanchez is grateful Garcia is behind bars, she says more could have been done.
“If they would have arrested him from the beginning, I think my husband would still be here with me,” Corona’s wife told ABC15.
Here’s her message to the suspected killer:
“He doesn’t know the harm he’s done to my family and my kids... he doesn’t know the harm he’s done to me... because he took away the love of my life,” said Sanchez.
As for her husband, this is what she would want him to know:
“I wish he was here with me, but that will never be,” she said in tears.
Garcia is facing a murder charge but is denying involvement in Corona’s murder.
Click here, for more information on how you can help Sanchez and her family.
