Blanca Iris de Mari Escobar-Roblero and Wilmer Morales-Roblero (Raleigh Police Department), and Samantha Briggs (WRAL screenshot)
A married couple from North Carolina was arrested after the 27-year-old wife allegedly killed a 10-year-old girl in a hit-and-run collision last year and had her 26-year-old husband drive the vehicle to a remote area and set it on fire to try to cover it up.
Blanca Iris de Mari Escobar-Roblero and Wilmer Morales-Roblero were taken into custody on Thursday and charged with multiple felonies in the November 2022 incident that left Samantha Briggs dead a day after her 12th birthday, authorities announced.
Escobar-Roblero is facing one count of felony hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death and one count of felony obstruction of justice, records reviewed by Law&Crime show. Morales-Roblero was charged with one count of felony accessory after the fact to a hit-and-run and one count of felony obstruction of justice.
According to a series of press releases from the Raleigh Police Department, officers responded at approximately 7:33 p.m. on Nov. 25 to a report of a car crash involving a girl near Hillsborough Street and Bashford Road. The victim was rushed to a hospital, where she died.
A preliminary investigation revealed that the victim — later identified as Briggs — had been trying to cross the road near the 6500 block of Hillsborough Street when a vehicle traveling east struck the child and fled the scene. Authorities said the car that killed Briggs was a white Hyundai hybrid model from 2006 to 2008.
Briggs was walking with her friends to a store where they planned to purchase snacks and candy for a birthday sleepover party, Wichita ABC affiliate KAKE reported.
With a shortage of potential suspects after three weeks of investigating, police launched an operation seeking the public’s assistance in bringing those responsible to justice. Officers returned to the area of the hit-and-run on Dec. 16, 2022, to hand out flyers related to the investigation to generate tips. Unfortunately, nothing turned up that indicated who the driver may have been.
Police returned on May 12 and handed out flyers again. This time, police say someone came forward with a tip that led them to Escobar-Roblero and Morales-Roblero.
According to warrants for the couple’s arrests obtained by KAKE, Escobar-Roblero was driving the vehicle that struck and killed Briggs. After allegedly fleeing the scene, police say Escobar-Roblero called her husband and told him what happened. He is accused of then taking the car and driving it to another location where he “excessively burned the suspect vehicle,” the warrant reportedly states, adding that he did so “in secrecy” and “with malice.”
In an interview with Raleigh NBC affiliate WRAL-TV, Kishaa Holmes, Briggs’ sister, said the arrests will help bring the family closure, but it won’t bring her sister back.
“The pain I feel is still unbearable,” she reportedly told the station. “And then to burn the car, that’s just crazy.”