A Texas woman fell through an open manhole while crossing an intersection and was discovered dead days later, miles away. Now, her family is suing the city for $100 million.
Teresa Gonzales, 66, was crossing the street on Oct. 22 when she fell into an uncovered sewer system manhole and disappeared for three days. The Central Wastewater Treatment Plant eventually discovered her body nine miles away.
Dallas police are investigating the incident as a “unexplained death,” but they do not believe foul play was involved. The medical examiner’s office is conducting an autopsy, and the results are still pending.
Cynthia Gonzales, Teresa Gonzales’ daughter, appeared at a news conference on December 10 with her family’s attorney, Ramez Shamieh, and told the press, “She was my mom,” adding, “Nobody should have to go through that.” Nobody. “No one should have to experience such a tragedy, regardless of who they are.”
Days later, at another news conference, Shamieh stated that more witnesses from Oct. 22 had come forward since the story went public. According to Shamieh, one of those witnesses described what a driver passing by claimed to have seen.
In an interview with KXAS, a local NBC affiliate, he stated, “There are four workers messing around over here.” She summons them, and they begin blaming each other, saying, ‘I cannot believe you left the manhole cover off.'”
At Shamieh’s second press conference on December 13, the attorney provided another witness account, claiming, “She saw [Gonzales] fall in.
“As you might expect, she’s driving the car, and she can’t believe what she just saw; she does a double take and sees her clawing for her life,” Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA reported.
Shamieh emphasized the nature of the scene that allegedly caused Gonzales’ death, saying, “This is not some small sewage hole.” This is a huge hole.”
On his law firm’s website, he elaborated on the danger of the scene, citing photographic evidence from a week after the incident: “The manhole was uncovered and had multiple gaps in the metal coverings.”
The city of Dallas declined to comment.
