SAN ANTONIO — A family flew across the country to pick up their son's remains and get some answers regarding his death.
Trevor Tardy, 30, was killed by a commercial truck on April 7 on Interstate 10 near Dietrich Road, according to officials. Initial reports from police stated Tardy was chasing after dogs when he was hit, but a witness claims Tardy was putting the dogs into his broken-down RV.
"You know, no matter what we do, we're never going to bring him back. We really feel like there's not much being done to find out what really happened here," said Mitch Stoddard, Tardy's stepdad. "And the main part of the investigation is why was he left out here for six hours?"
The family claims a TxDOT HERO operator had stopped by to check on Tardy.
"Their mission statement of the HERO program is to relocate disabled vehicles to safety," Stoddard said. "Why didn't they do that? That's where I think most of our anger is right now, is with them."
Tardy was a street musician in Galveston who was travelling through San Antonio to view the solar eclipse.
"We saw him in March," said Susan Stoddard, Tardy's mom. "Like three weeks prior. We were able to watch him perform on the street and spend time with him."
The family set up a memorial on the corner where Tardy was killed.
"We're building the memorial to honor him and bringing awareness so that this doesn't happen to any other family," said Tarae Blackmon, Tardy's sister.
KENS 5 has reached out to TxDOT to verify the family's claim that a HERO truck stopped to help and then left. We are still awaiting a response.