'It's been really hard, it's really bad,' Family of Isabella Salas speaks out for first time since fatal hit-and-run
The 17-year-old Cranford High School seniors, Isabella Rose Salas and Maria Niotis, were killed while riding on an electric bike on Burnside Avenue in September.
More Stories
The family of a teen girl killed in a hit and run in Cranford last fall spoke exclusively to News 12 for their first public comment since the tragedy.
The Salas family's anguish was still painfully clear on Sunday afternoon, five months after Isabella Salas and Maria Niotis were killed while riding an e-bike.
"It's been really hard. It's really bad," said Mary and Edwin Salas, Isabella's parents. "They were always busy. They were bike riding. They were just happy kids...I think it's just like constant shock every day when you get up because it just makes no sense."
News 12 met with Mary, Edwin and almost a dozen other family members in a small gazebo in downtown Cranford.
It's been decorated with crochet hearts, dedicated as a show of love to the girls.
"It's beautiful. I love this. A lot of love," Mary said about the tribute.
17-year-old Isabella Salas' parents said she was a talented singer, and she had intentions of attending college for performing arts.
"She was always kind, caring, loved being with her friends, helping people," Edwin Salas said.
According to police, Salas and Niotis were intentionally run over by an SUV on Burnside Ave.
"I tracked her phone to see if she made it back to the house, and then I wound up going on Facebook. One of the Cranford mom pages turned around, and they said, 'oh, something happened on Burnside,'" Mary Salas said of the day her daughter was killed. "I noticed her phone didn't move."
Isabella's mother told News 12 she immediately called her husband and told him to run to their daughter's location.
"I walked up. I see my daughter's slippers on the road. I told them, 'those are my daughter's things.'" Edwin told News 12. "So, they finally let me through, and I was able to talk to Maria's grandmother. They told me it was both of them. I just lost it right there on the spot."
Vincent Battiloro, of Garwood, has been charged with two counts of murder in the first degree.
He was 17 at the time of the hit and run.
"We go to court, and he's sitting right there. You can't say anything. You can't do anything," Mary said. "When the attention goes toward the criminal case, I hate that. Yes, obviously, we want that dealt with, but no. It's about these girls."
News 12 asked the Salases about their experience dealing with media attention and social media speculation following their loss.
"It was awful, very invasive...a lot of phone calls all the time, people would show up at the house." Mary said. "They want this huge story. She's not a story. She was a person."
Mary and Edwin said they'd eventually like to start a scholarship in Isabella's name to help students who also want to study theatre attend college.
"She was just gallivanting around, singing and dancing. We miss that in the house," Mary said. "The house is so quiet...what I would do to hear that."
