A homeless woman was left to die in her towed van in an impound lot after a DUI crash and her family is suing the city of San Diego for her tragic demise.
Monica Cameroni De Adams, 65, was sleeping in her van when a drunken man, 25-year-old Jordan Lopez, crashed into the van on Nov. 5, 2023.
The damaged van was then towed away with De Adams still alive and in desperate need of medical attention, family attorney John Carpenter said.
The woman’s badly decomposed body was found weeks later by a towing company employee who noticed a foul odor.
An autopsy confirmed De Adams died from blunt force trauma injuries. The family claimed her wounds were “severe but survivable.”
“Her death was proximately caused by leaving her alone, struggling with her injuries inside of her car, entombing her in her car, taking her car to the tow yard and leaving her there to die,” Carpenter said.
“Just because someone is homeless doesn’t mean that they don’t have a family that loves them. Things are difficult. It’s easy to overlook people who are homeless, but they do have loving families and they do matter. This story exemplifies that.”
