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Woman faces hardship as SUV held as evidence after carjacking

Posted at 10:28 PM, Feb 02, 2014
and last updated 2014-02-03 00:28:12-05

UTAH COUNTY -- She's another victim of a crime spree that left a Sheriff's sergeant dead and a deputy hanging onto life.

Chetney Williams was in her 2008 Toyota Highlander with her 3 1/2 year old daughter Presley when she stopped for a young woman in the middle of Highway 89 in Nephi.

As she stopped, Jose Angel Garcia-Juaregui allegedly ran to her car and held a gun to her head.

Williams' mother, Donna Monson, said her daughter had barely released her daughter's seatbelt and picked her up before Garcia-Juaregui stepped on the gas.

"She has nightmares,” Monson said. “She says she can't close her eyes because she keeps seeing his face.”

Monson also said her granddaughter continues to suffer from the memory.

Monson said: "Her little girl has had several nightmares, and she keeps crawling under the covers and asking 'Is he going to shoot me?'"

Now Monson said she is doing her best to get help for her daughter, but there are few avenues of help available for victims, especially in rural Utah.

"It's not that we aren't totally grateful to have her life and our granddaughter's life because we are,” she said. “It's just that I don't understand the process. I just don't understand why there isn't the help that these people need.”

Monson's biggest frustration is that her daughter still does not have her SUV, which is a lifeline in rural Utah. The SUV is being held as evidence in the ongoing investigation into the string of crimes allegedly committed by Garcia-Juaregui, who died of wounds he sustained in the incident.

She said Williams is pregnant and her doctor's office is 50 miles away. The nearest grocery store is 20 miles away. That's the same distance she'd have to travel to see the counselor arranged by a victim advocate, according to Monson.

Monson said she doesn't expect to be able to change the system in time to help her daughter, but she and her daughter want people to realize how hard it is to be a rural victim of crime.