HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -- A family is looking for closure after their relative died in a bike crash in Harrisburg.
Leyla Monroy's family flew to the Midstate from Peru after they heard of Leyla's death. They said they will not leave until they know more about what happened.
"My sister was not a number, not a statistic," Leyla's brother Andre Monroy said.
Leyla's family is holding on to their memories of a sister, a daughter. Leyla's mother spoke to abc27 in Spanish, so abc27 used a translator to share her story.
"Her smile, her joy for life, her urge to fight and get ahead," Leyla's mother Lourdes Tenorio remembered.
Leyla's brother and mother described hearing the news of their loved one's death thousands of miles away in Peru.
"It felt like an emptiness in the heart, an emptiness in the body, a hole in the soul," Monroy said.
Tenorio said, "They took my daughter from me, they have taken away a part of my life."
It happened in June near the intersection of Market and South Cameron streets. Leyla was biking, something her brother said she has loved for years.
"She went to the school on the bike, she went every week on the bike, she did everything on the bike," he said.
A car tried to make a U-turn. That is when Leyla crashed into the driver's side and fell under the car. She died two days later in the hospital.
"One of the sad part[s] and the hurt in my heart is she died alone, no one [to] hold her hand," Monroy said.
Her family is still struggling to make sense of their loss.
"She never stopped overcoming obstacles, she never accepted the word 'no,' she always could do it. She came to this country full of hopes and dreams," Tenorio said.
They created a memorial at the intersection for the woman they say had an artist's soul and loved life.
"So energetic, so full of life, but now it's gone," Monroy said.
Recycle Bicycle stepped in to help, setting up their traditional ghost bike, a bike painted white, to signal a biker who died in a traffic accident.
"This beautiful life was lost and it's just heartbreaking, and it could be any one of us that are biking at any time," Recycle Bicycle board member Stephanie Iseman said.
Police are still investigating Leyla's accident. Her family said they just want closure.
"I believe in this country, that it won't abandon me, that it won't let my daughter's death go unpunished," Tenorio said.
Leyla's ghost bike has been up for three weeks but for the first week, it was unidentified. Now that they know it was Leyla, Recycle Bicycle said they want to keep it up another two to three weeks.
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