Her mother glanced over and saw the text on Daisy’s phone. It was from Victor. “I had something for you. ”
Daisy stood up.
“I’ll be right back. Don’t worry. ”
Susanna watched her daughter walk out the door. She had no idea that would be the last time she ever saw her alive.
Daisy De La O was only nineteen. She was studying business administration at East LA College, dreaming of opening her own salon one day. She had finally ended her relationship with Victor Sosa after four years of abuse. She met him on a dating app when she was fifteen.
He was twenty-one. She kept his age a secret from her family at first, and when her mother finally met him and saw his tattoos, she knew he wasn’t a teenager. Soon, family and friends started seeing signs of violence. Bites.
Scratches. Bruises. Daisy would brush it off, say it was nothing. But her little brother witnessed Victor strangling her during an argument.
He had to jump in and physically pull Victor off his sister. Victor was controlling, jealous, possessive. He smashed a skateboard over Daisy’s head during one of their fights, splitting her open so badly she needed stitches. Her mother took her to the hospital, hoping for police support, but they said the case couldn’t move forward without a statement from Daisy.
She wouldn’t give one. Daisy’s mother went to three different police stations trying to file restraining orders. She talked to the school, and they interviewed Daisy’s brother, then Daisy herself. She denied everything at first, until they told her her own brother had seen the abuse.
She broke down and admitted Victor was dangerous. He was banned from school campus and from the apartment property. But Daisy kept seeing him on and off until January 2021, when she finally told her mother she was done with him for good. “I’m done seeing what’s-his-name,” she said casually in the car.
She knew better than to say his name in front of her mom. Susanna was relieved. This time, Daisy sounded serious. She had deleted all her social media with Victor in it.
She was rebuilding her life. But Victor saw that deletion. He knew this time she meant it. And for a man like him, that was a loss of control he couldn’t accept.
On February 22, 2021, Daisy and her mother were watching TV in their apartment. Daisy got that text from Victor and left. When Susanna woke up the next morning, Daisy wasn’t home. She thought Daisy had gone back to him again.
She went to work like it was a normal day. Then she got a call from an LA County Sheriff asking if she knew where Daisy was. They also asked to speak with Victor. Susanna’s heart dropped.
She ran to her boss’s office, crying. “He did something to her. He did something to her. ”
Her friend drove her home.
There were cops everywhere. Yellow tape. Susanna kept walking, and then she turned around and saw the body bag. “Where’s my baby?
Where’s my baby? ”
They showed her a picture of her daughter’s face. Just the face. She looked like she was asleep.
“Yes, that’s her. ”
Her tears turned off. She had to deliver the news to her sons, her parents, everyone. The property manager had found Daisy’s body that morning, rolled up in a carpet in an alley between two apartment buildings.
There was a laceration on her neck four to six inches long. A knife was found with the body. A thirteen-year-old resident identified Daisy and told police he had seen a young man dragging a body through the complex the night before. Security footage showed a shadowy figure dragging Daisy’s body.
Too blurry to identify. But Daisy’s family knew. Everyone knew. It was Victor.
Her grandfather even saw Victor lurking around the apartment building that evening. They waited for an arrest. Nothing happened. The police said they needed more evidence.
They couldn’t just arrest him. Days turned into weeks, and Victor disappeared. The media barely covered Daisy’s murder. One article in the paper referred to her as “Latina Jane Doe.
” Her family felt abandoned. Her case was slipping away. Daisy’s best friend, Rebecca Fuentes, decided to take matters into her own hands. She made a TikTok video called My Friend Daisy.
She laid everything out—who Daisy was, who Victor was, what happened, and that no arrest had been made. “Come on, TikTok, do your thing,” she captioned it. “Let’s blow this thing up and let’s find this guy. ”
The video took off.
Within days, it was everywhere. People who never met Daisy were sharing her story, posting with the hashtag Justice for Daisy. An Instagram account and Facebook page were created. Tens of thousands of eyes and ears were now looking for Victor Sosa.
Comments poured in. People expressed sympathy. Some said they thought they had seen him near the metro, near encampments. Leads started coming in.
Susanna was shocked by the response. “I saw how many views that video has. I was shocked that my daughter mattered. It changed my life.
It changed the outcome of my daughter’s case. ”
On July 1st, a tip came in that was different from all the others. It included a video. Rebecca saw it and started taking screenshots, her hands shaking.
She sent them to Susanna. “Is this Victor? Did we find him? ”
Susanna was nervous to look.
When she finally saw the screenshot, she knew it was him. He was sitting in a bar in Rosarito, Mexico, his hair bleached in the middle, smoking a cigarette, completely relaxed. Living his life. Enjoying the ocean view.
After murdering Daisy, he had just… gone to Mexico. He looked like he was having the time of his life. Susanna sent the images to the detective. The detective said they were already working with Mexican authorities and already knew he was there.
But nothing had been done until now. The next day, Mexican authorities arrested Victor in that same bar. He didn’t fight. He was extradited to Los Angeles County and charged with first-degree murder.
At the trial, Victor pleaded not guilty. The defense argued there was insufficient physical evidence. But there was DNA. There was video footage.
There were eyewitnesses. There was his own mother, who testified against him. She had confronted him after word got out that he was involved in Daisy’s murder. She asked him if he had something to do with her death.
He bowed his head. She begged him to turn himself in. Instead, he ran to Mexico. So she took the stand against her own son.
The jury found Victor Sosa guilty of first-degree murder. He was sentenced to 26 years to life. When the verdict was read, Susanna felt a weight lift off her. She wanted to scream and cry.
She cried. “It’s like this weight came off me. It’s so crazy because him smoking and living his life, somebody sent us that. You were here enjoying yourself while you destroy my family.
”
Daisy’s family had been through every part of the trial. Now it was over. They could finally breathe. Daisy is gone.
She will never come back. But her family wants people to know that she mattered. They don’t want her to be a footnote in her own murder. “Daisy was a very caring individual.
She was a beautiful soul. She looked tough on the exterior, but she was the sweetest person, kind and caring. She was so faithful to her friends. ”
Her mother refuses to forget what happened.
She wants her story told. “Whether I like it or not, it’s my story. And denying what happened, or acting like it didn’t happen, I think it’s an insult to my daughter’s memory. ”
Maybe someone listening will recognize their own situation.
Maybe they will pack their bags and leave before it’s too late.
