Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Police: Missing college athlete died on Los Angeles freeway

Missing student

AP Photo/Los Angeles Police Department

This undated photo provided by the Los Angeles Police Department shows 19-year-old Eloi Vasquez. The University of California, Berkeley, student went missing after he left a party near the University of Southern California campus in Los Angeles early Saturday, March 26, 2015.

LOS ANGELES — A University of California, Berkeley soccer player who disappeared after a weekend party was killed by a car as he ran across a Los Angeles freeway, police said Monday.

The 19-year-old freshman, Eloi Vasquez, died early Saturday on eastbound Interstate 10 about a mile from the University of Southern California after he was seen leaving a fraternity party.

A woman said a man ran in front of her and she was unable to avoid hitting him, said Officer Edgar Figueroa, a CHP spokesman. The man was struck just east of Vermont Avenue. The investigation is ongoing.

Vasquez was pronounced dead at the scene. He was not carrying identification, which set off a missing persons search until the coroner could identify him.

Vasquez, who was on spring break in Los Angeles, had left the party to take a walk with no money and no wallet, family and police said.

His mother, Wendy Margolin, said he later called a friend, telling her he was lost and in trouble.

The family had offered a $100,000 reward for information about his whereabouts.

"Eloi is a wonderful young man who has excelled both academically and athletically here at Cal," the university said in a statement before the death was confirmed.

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