A Descanso man's friends and family spent Friday afternoon setting up a roadside vigil near the spot where he crashed and lost his life. They had spent the three days prior painstakingly perplexed, not knowing if he was alive or dead, after he never returned from a run to the store.
CHP investigators say 30-year-old Pedro Waller lost control of his car on State Route 79 near Interstate 8. His Ford Mustang hit a fence and some trees, flipped and tumbled into thick brush along the road where no one could see it.
Waller was last seen alive Tuesday afternoon on the security camera at a convenience store five miles from his home. His family says he had gone on a quick trip for propane.
His family began to worry when he never came home.
"I called him over a hundred times he never answered. He never called me back," Waller's sister Amanda Gonzalez said.
A good Samaritan called the CHP Tuesday evening to report a damaged fence in the area of the crash. Since it wasn't a report of a car crash, officers didn't immediately respond.
By Wednesday morning, Waller's family had grown concerned enough to file a missing persons report with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.
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They waited in agony for their father, step-father, brother, friend to return home, but he never showed.
Their worst fear was realized Thursday afternoon when a utility worker pulled over on the side of the road to take a break and noticed Waller's upside down Mustang.
The witness called CHP, and officers confirmed Waller's death at the scene.
What caused him to lose control of his car and leave the road is now the mystery Waller's family wants to solve.
"Did somebody cut him off on the side of the road? Did and animal cut in front of him?" Gonzalez wonders.
While that mystery unfolds, his loved ones are also taking time to remember him for the loving family man that he was.
"He had a smile that would light up a room. He had a very kind heart," Gonzalez said. "He was a very fun loving person, always happy, very happy all the time."
CHP investigators say Waller was not wearing his seatbelt. Whether alcohol, drugs, or distracted driving was involved has not been determined.
No other information was available.
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