MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A 22-year-old aspiring law school student who had graduated from Florida International University was in a car on Interstate 95 in Miami-Dade County when a stray bullet killed her.
Melissa Gonzalez was with her boyfriend, Julian Veliz Cortina, heading southbound to Mount Sinai Hospital in Miami Beach where her grandfather was hospitalized.
As they approached Northwest 79 Street, Veliz Cortina reported hearing a shooting when a stray bullet struck Gonzalez on Jan. 3, 2020, according to deputies.
Gonzalez was wounded, so fire rescue personnel rushed her to Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center where she later died.
Detectives later found evidence of a shooting at the same time on Northwest 83 Street, which runs parallel to I-95 southbound.
For more than five years, Gonzalez’s grief-stricken mother, Sheilla Nuñez, and sister, Melanie Machado, have pleaded for help with the unsolved homicide.
Miami-Dade homicide detectives have some clues: Surveillance video shows a dark-colored sedan after the shooting nearby at Northwest 83 Street.
A detective said there were at least two witnesses who know what happened and they hope the family’s plea “hits a chord in their heart.”
Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Detective J. Segovia at 305-471-2400 or Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477 to remain anonymous.
There is a $7,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and prosecution in the case.
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