Originally published by: USA Today
Robert Falcon said he posted several photos of the child on Wednesday, including one of the boy in a small white casket, to encourage the hit-and-run driver to step forward and claim responsibility for taking the child’s life.
“I want you to see these pictures and I want you to know how much it pains me to know that you would run over a child and not stop to render aid,” Falcon wrote. “I had to listen to a mother and father cry and bargain with God today because you took their son from them.”
The Travis County Medical Examiner identified the victim as three-year-old Ethan Hernandez Maldonado on Monday, KVUE-TV reported. Following the accident, Ethan was taken to Dell Children’s Medical Center, were he was pronounced dead.
Falcon, who is the founder of Affordable Burial & Cremation Service, wrote that he cared for Ethan’s body from the time he picked him up from the Medical Examiner’s office, to the moment when he closed the casket and took Ethan to his final resting place.
“I was there when his mom and dad saw him for the first time yesterday, and wept with them,” Falcon wrote. “I was the last to see his body.”
Falcon said it was one of the hardest experiences of his life.
“I did this because of you,” Falcon said. “You know who you are. I have done my duty, now do YOURS and turn yourself in.”
According to police, the suspect was driving an older model white and tan Chevy with a ladder on the back.
Contributing: Jason, Puckett, KVUE-TV, Austin
