They Never Made It Home: Two New Jersey Women Killed After World Cup Party in Shocking Hit-and-Run
Two New Jersey women were fatally struck by a hit-and-run driver when they were walking home from a World Cup watch party on Saturday, horrifying video showed.
Mariana Elizabeth Valverde Beltran, 58, and Maria Isabel DeLosAngeles Salgado Ayala, 61, were walking across the intersection at Park Avenue and North 7th Street in Newark when a driver barreled into the pair, the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Two women cross an intersection in Newark, NJ, moments before they were struck by a car on June 20, 2026.abc7ny
One witness alleged that Zapata-Vera stepped on his accelerator and sped through the crosswalk as the traffic light was in the middle of changing.abc7ny
Street surveillance cameras captured the suspect, identified as 26-year-old David J. Zapata-Vera, racing through the intersection, striking the two women and sending them airborne, according to video obtained by WABC.
One witness alleged that Zapata-Vera stepped on his accelerator and sped through the crosswalk as the traffic light was in the middle of changing.
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“I don’t know if he was drunk, but anyway, he put the gas and that’s what happens,” Manuel Candelaria told the outlet.
The women were rushed to University Hospital Newark, where they were pronounced dead.
Mariana Elizabeth Valverde Beltran, 58, and Maria Isabel DeLosAngeles Salgado Ayala, 61, were killed in the senseless hit-and-run Wednesday.
Relatives of the women were left traumatized by their deaths.
“You have to live with this for the rest of your life. I hope the person is found but also for that person it’s something you have to live with for the rest of your life, it’s on your conscience,” Beltran’s cousin, Jeffrey Chacon, told WABC.
David J. Zapata-Vera is accused of killing the two women in the hit-and-run crash.Essex County Prosecutor’s Office
“My dad is managing his emotions with trying to contact everyone in Ecuador, her sisters, her son,” he added.
Mariana Elizabeth Valverde Beltran was 58.abc7ny
Zapata-Vera, of Newark, surrendered to police on Tuesday, three days after the deadly crash.
He was charged with two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide, two counts of second-degree leaving the scene of a motor vehicle accident resulting in death, and two counts of third-degree endangering an injured victim.
Zapata-Vera is being held in Essex County jail without bond, according to jail records viewed by The Post.