‘We are going to have justice’: Family of 21-year-old Marine killed in hit-and-run speaks

The family of a North Texas Marine Corps reservist is still looking for answers after she was killed in a hit-and-run crash on Interstate 20 last week.

Arlington police said 21-year old Areauna Laws was on the way to drills when she began having car trouble and stopped on the shoulder of the interstate on June 23.

Laws exited her vehicle for a moment and was struck and killed by a pickup truck, police said.

Witnesses described seeing the pickup driving erratically and veering onto the shoulder before hitting Laws on the westbound side of I-20 near Matlock Road. According to police, the driver fled the scene of the accident about 5 a.m. and the pickup was found in a nearby parking lot.

Laws’ father, Lawrence, said his daughter loved the color green and watching tadpoles grow into frogs in a pond on the family’s land.

She considered the Marine Corps to be her second family and was engaged to be married, her father said.

The last update he received from the police, Lawrence Laws said, was that officers were “close to making an update in the case.”

Areauna was buried with full military honors on Friday.

Her father said Marine Corps officers and sergeant majors traveled from as far as California to attend her funeral.

“If I could talk to that person, I would say we found you, and we are going to have justice for my Areauna and for every Areauna that is out there that has ever been raped, abused, murdered, or kidnapped using our sacred highways,” Laws said.

Anyone with information on the case is encouraged to contact the Arlington Police Department.