Joshua Gudiel was 25 years old when someone shot and killed him in South LA.
It was January 8, 2017, just after midnight and just feet from the safety of his family’s home.
"I hope this touches people to the point that it hits home," his little sister Ashley said as she sat with NBC4 to relive her family’s worst moment, a moment that’s still very raw in her memory.
"His heaven is my heartbeat," she said. The family’s apartment is on a second level of a building at 45th and Hoover – from the balcony they can see the spot down below where even today, candles and flowers mark the spot where Joshua died.
"You just don’t ever think that that your family would become part of a statistic." Marcos Chamale says of his brother’s murder, "They took my best friend away from me."
LAPD South Bureau Criminal Gang Homicide Detectives wanted to profile this particular case less than two months since it happened because they say they’ve hit a wall with leads.
Detective Matthew Courtney says he wants someone to come forward with specifics.
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"Who’s involved in the case? Obviously the suspects," he said. "What specific vehicle was used in the case, the specific make and model of the car."
Surveillance video obtained from the scene shows the suspect vehicle and a $50,000 reward is on the line for anyone who can help detectives find those involved.
Detective Courtney says Josh had been out with friends the night he died. A group of them were riding in a full-size pick-up truck and had stopped on 45th Street to let one of them jump out to grab something from a nearby home. Josh was in the backseat and got out to let the middle passenger step out, and then Josh waited by the back of the truck for his friend to return.
"While he’s waiting, the suspect vehicle comes, opens fire and then drives off,” he says.
Josh’s friends called 911 and the dispatcher tried to help them through chest compressions, but it would be futile.
Jessica Villalva chokes back tears when she talks about what Josh left behind.
"I was his girlfriend and his daughter’s mother.”
Villalva describes Josh as a hard-working, loving man. She says he worked for an alarm company and loved to work with his hands. But she says his biggest passion was his family.
"My daughter is suffering because of this," she says. "Everything about her is him."
And while time ticks away since the murder, the family’s pain is frozen. They admit there’s anger, but say they don’t know where to focus that anger because they don’t know who killed Joshua.
Detectives compiled a complete background on Joshua and say he had no gang ties and add that whoever committed the crime, may be bragging to people in the neighborhood.
"Often times gang crimes occur because people are seeking out respect among their fellow gang members, and for you to gain that respect, someone needs to know that you did that," detective Courtney says.
Joshua’s brother says that while the family feels the pain, he doubts the killer feels any guilt.
"Because if you did, I don’t think you could do that."
There is no feeling anymore, Ashley says of the family home, adding that even short moments of laughter tend to turn into longer moments of grief. She says she was very close with her brother, a difference in age between them only two years and one day.
"We used to celebrate together,” she says. It was a phone call that alerted her to what happened to her brother.
"And at that moment, I just fell to the ground like everything just stopped. Time stopped,” she said. Her brother’s body was lying in the street well within view of her bedroom window.
Joshua's mother is feeling perhaps the worst of it all. Ashley says she can’t cook certain meals because they remind her of him and daily tasks can’t help but bring back memories of what happened.
"She can’t fold her laundry because some of his clothes might end up in there and she just starts crying," she said.
And as difficult as it was to sit before a TV camera to talk about their worst day, there is hope in this family that all this pain is not in vain.
"We hope that something can come through all this," Marcos said.
Anyone with information is asked to call LAPD South Bureau Homicide Detectives at 323-786-5110. Reward money being offered is at $50,000 and will be presented to anyone who can help lead to the arrest and conviction of the killer. Anonymous tips can be submitted to CrimeStoppers at 1-888-222-TIPS.
