“She was giving a friend a ride for gas money, God knows she loved to drive,” Garcia-Tovar said.
The mother told her daughter to be home by 11 p.m. A few hours later, she looked at the clock and saw it was 11:10 p.m. She sent a text reminding her daughter it was past curfew.
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She never heard back. Minutes later, Sydney’s friend, who was in the car at the time of the shooting, sent a text saying Sydney had been shot.
At University of Cincinnati Medical Center, the mother learned her daughter had been shot in the head, and it was not a survivable injury. The family said goodbye to the teen a few days later when her organs were harvested for donation.
Garcia-Tovar is frustrated no one has come forward about Sydney’s shooting. There were three others in the car when it pulled into the apartment complex, including one man who received a non-life-threatening injury.
Last week, she decided to post on Facebook a photo of $100 bills totalling $1,000 as proof of a cash reward for information leading to the capture of the person responsible for her daughter’s slaying.
“Money talks,” she said.
“I just need someone to come forward,” she said. “I don’t care who they are or what they have done. I want the person who shot my daughter.”
Garcia-Tovar said she isn’t concerned for her safety after showing the cash because it is in a bank. She has also set up a “Reward for Sydney” at PayPal. com.
MORE: Hamilton girl, 16, who was fatally shot had a bright future, relative says
The teen’s unsolved case is featured on a poster showing unsolved female homicides in Butler and Hamilton counties distributed activist Hope Dudley, who has turned her grief of losing her son in a homicide into founding the group U-Can-Speak-For-Me.
Fairfield Police Sgt. Jamison Mays said detectives are working on the case weekly and have been in contact with Middletown and Hamilton police to explore possible connections to gang and gun violence in the areas.
The teen was not the target of the shooting, according to police. Mays said one person in the car with Sydney on the night she died has talked with them but may have been less than forthcoming.
“The other two just won’t talk at all now,” Mays said, adding more evidence is needed to file charge. Detectives have met with prosecutors to determine what information is needed to solve the case.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Detective Daniel Tinch at 513-785-4166.
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