South Dade farmworker on bike killed by Maserati, family says

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – In the fields of South Dade, family members of Baltazar Lux Terraza say the 38-year-old toiled daily as a farmworker.

His cousin Magdalena Mendez described him as a hard worker whose strenuous labor helped provide for his family in Guatemala — a life partner and their four children, the youngest just 4 years old.

Around 7 a.m. Tuesday, on a stretch of Southwest 200th Street near Southwest 172nd Avenue, investigators say the driver of Maserati hit a cyclist and left. The man on the mangled bicycle who died at the scene was Baltazar, says their family attorney Rick Freedman.

“They are very concerned about whether they will receive justice for Baltazar,” Freedman said.

While the Florida Highway Patrol says the driver of the Maserati was found shortly after, about a half-mile from the crash scene, no arrest has been made.

“Apparently, the driver of the vehicle has not admitted that he was the driver,” Freedman said.

Mendez says she wants the driver of the Maserati to understand her family’s loss, adding that Baltazar worked seven days a week to provide food and education for his four children ages 4 to 15.

On Thursday morning the family here in South Florida identified his body. They say they are working on plans to host a memorial service at a funeral home before flying his body back to Guatemala for a funeral and burial with family members there.

Family members met near the fields where Baltazar Lux Terraza worked, and where he took his last breath, to share his story in hopes that someone with new information comes forward to assist FHP in their ongoing investigation.

“If you have any information whatsoever that can help them establish the driver of the vehicle and to help close this case,” Freedman said.

FHP said that anyone who has information that might help the investigation can dial *FHP (*347).