100 deadliest days claims life of Heber City man, family working to take him home to Mexico

HEBER CITY, Utah (ABC4) — The 100 deadliest days started this weekend, and it proved to be busy for Utah Highway Patrol. As of Monday, troopers made 77 DUI arrests, responded to 172 crashes and investigated one fatal crash. Sadly, since then, more people have lost their lives on Utah roads. One of those was a man who’s called Heber City home since 2017 and worked to support his parents in Mexico, Eliezer Ramirez.

The Ramirez family lost their brother in a car wreck this Tuesday. If it wasn’t hard enough already to mourn the loss of a loved one, they are now focused on how to get him home to their parents in Mexico.  

“I didn’t believe it until I got there to see him,” Gabriel Ramirez stated. “I saw him when they brought him down. For me it was hard, very hard.”  

Gabriel is Eliezer’s older brother. Gabriel has lived in Heber City for 18 years. His brother joined him in 2017. He told ABC4 that having his brother here was the best. He didn’t want to show his face on camera because he was emotional while speaking about his brother, but he wanted to make sure he told Eliezer’s story.  

Gabriel described Eliezer: “My brother is a person who is easy-going, friendly, he really liked to play with the kids [Gabriel’s four children], have fun, dance and work.”  

“We all came here to do well, to work, to get ahead, to help my parents get ahead,” Gabriel said while explaining what brought the brothers to Heber City. Eliezer worked as a painter and helped support his parents in Mexico. “They are destroyed,” Gabriel added in regard to how his parents are coping.  

The family is holding a mass for Eliezer in Park City on Friday. However, that won’t be their final goodbye. They are raising money (through this GoFundMe) to take Eliezer back to Michoacán so he can be buried near their parents’ home.   

It won’t be an easy feat. After arriving at the nearest airport, they’ll have to drive him about six hours. That normally wouldn’t sound like much, but their trek will take them over undeveloped, dirt roads (there is an example of those roads in the attached video). 

However, it’ll be worth it to bring some closure to their parents. “There are losses that one is never going to overcome,” added Gabriel.