Heartbreaking story coming out of Texas: Angel Rojas, just 24 years old, was doing what he did every day: putting in work to take care of his family. But last Monday, that hard day’s work turned tragic at Restland Funeral Home on Greenville Avenue.
According to WLBT3, Angel was on the job moving concrete burial vaults and lids, heavy, dangerous work. At some point, one of those massive vaults came crashing down, pinning him beneath it.
He managed to grab his phone and call for help. Then he tried to call his wife, Natalie. She missed the call but later listened to the voicemail that would change her life forever.
Natalie Rojas told the outlet through tears, “He told me he loved me and he wanted to go home.”
Attorneys for the Rojas family say this tragedy wasn’t just an accident, it was a failure of responsibility.
“There’s no way on earth this man should have been operating that machinery alone,” said attorney Matthew Graham to WFAA . “He shouldn’t had been working alone. He shouldn’t had been moving things of that weight alone.”
According to the family’s legal team, it took firefighters more than 45 minutes to lift the vault off Angel’s body. By the time he reached the hospital, it was too late.
In a written statement, Restland Funeral Home said, “We are saddened by the loss of our longstanding valued employee. We are cooperating with the authorities to determine the cause.”
But Natalie Rojas isn’t satisfied with that. Her husband, she says, was too careful, too smart, and too experienced for this to happen by chance.
“My husband was a smart worker. My husband knew the risk of a small error. My husband knew the precautions to everything he was doing,” she said. “I don’t know what happened, but whatever did happen, he never should have been there alone.”
Angel Rojas now leaves behind his wife and their 3-year-old son, Angel Noel, who turns 4 next month.
“He was a hard-working father. Angel was amazing all around,” Natalie said.
Now, as the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) digs into the details of how and why this happened, one thing is clear: a young life was taken far too soon, and a family is left trying to make sense of the unthinkable.
Angel went to work to build a better life for his family. Instead, his family is left with memories, a voicemail, and a vow to get justice.