For Luz Buitrago, the last three months have been filled with heartbreak after a hit-and-run driver took the lives of her husband and their dog. Now, she’s left asking how someone could hit a man and his dog, look at them lying on the ground, and drive away.
“We had so many plans. We were supposed to retire this year. Everything’s different now,” Luz said. “I have to figure out how to keep going without them.”
This month would have marked her 30th wedding anniversary with 65-year-old Rafael Alberto Buitrago.
“My husband is no longer here. I’m just here, celebrating nothing,” she said.
Rafael and their dog Nova were killed just around the corner from their Aurora home, near East Wesley Drive and Caspian Circle. It happened the evening of April 3 while Rafael was out walking Nova.
“It was horrible. I keep that day in my mind every single 24 hours,” Luz said.
The driver, 73-year-old Michael Graham-Hyde, later pleaded guilty in connection to the crash. According to an Arapahoe County arrest affidavit, he had been awake for 38 hours when he hit Rafael and Nova, who were walking on the sidewalk.
Graham-Hyde admitted he stepped out of his car, saw the bodies, panicked, and drove away. He turned himself in more than seven hours later after seeing a post on Nextdoor about a pedestrian who had died.
“He saw the victims there, and he left,” Luz said.
She still wonders if Rafael might have survived had the driver called 911.
“Seconds in the ER could’ve made the difference,” she said. “Maybe my husband would be in a wheelchair, but he’d be alive… still with me.”
On Monday, Graham-Hyde pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury. As part of the plea deal, a lesser charge of careless driving causing death was dropped.
Luz addressed the court during the hearing. She said she doesn’t harbor hate toward Graham-Hyde but hopes the judge will hold him accountable.
“My husband and Nova were my family,” she said.
She believes tragedies like hers could be prevented if laws were stricter for hit-and-run drivers.
“This is really sad and really painful. Every day when I drive, I see more memorial signs,” she said. “I know nothing can bring back my husband and my dog, but I want to turn this pain into something meaningful.”
Graham-Hyde’s sentencing is scheduled for September 29. He faces a sentence ranging from four to twelve years.
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Katie is a senior who has been on staff for three years. Her favorite type of stories to write is reviews and features. Katie’s favorite ice cream flavor is strawberry.
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