BIG SPRING, Texas — Daniel Flores was a father, a grandfather, a husband, and would do anything for his family.
"Daniel was a good person," Daniel Flores's ex-wife Lou Sherman said. "He was good to anybody and everybody."
10 years ago, however, Flores was found dead… holding a picture of the ones he loved.
"He was holding a picture of the three boys [his sons]," Sherman said. "You could tell he was staring into it. He had it in his wallet. You can tell that that's what he was looking at when he died."
Found dead in his son’s car days after he was deemed missing… this is the story of Daniel Flores.
"How we met is crazy," Sherman said. "I was raised here. He was raised across the street."
Both raised in Big Spring, Lou Sherman was once married to Daniel Flores.
"[...] And we grew up as kids," Sherman continued. "And then we just went from there. We wound up dating and then we wound up getting married. We were married 18 years. We have three kids."
A childhood romance… turned into a tragedy.
"My middle son used to live here and then Daniel came in one night and said that some people beat him up and it was on the North side," Sherman said. "And then he told him who did it and what they did, you know, like kicking him in the head, the spine or whatever. You could tell he'd been fighting back. My middle son tells him just to lay down Dad, we’ll take care of it tomorrow. I gotta be at work at six o'clock in the morning."
Unfortunately, tomorrow was too late. Flores was missing the next morning.
"And it took us two days to find him," Sherman said.
They found him right in front of their house.
"He actually died in an old car that him and my middle son were going to redo and make it into a lowrider, right here where we're at," Sherman said, pointing at the driveway. "He died right here. And they said that they beat him so bad that it ruptured his spleen, he had internal bleeding."
Lou’s middle son was the one who found him, the picture of him and his siblings still in his father’s hands.
"And when he found him," Sherman said. "He still had that picture in his hand he, fell over sideways. He still had the picture in his hand."
Lou claims his murder was over something trivial.
"And just over a six pack of beer," Sherman said. "It's just crazy."
Even though it’s been a decade since his death, the pain still lingers within this family.
"I mean every year it is so hard," Sherman said about their anniversary. "My kids struggle just to come over here. It's just too much for them. And I tell my son we can always do it somewhere else. But they want to do it here where he died."
Lou and the family think they know who did it.
Despite this, the Big Spring Police Department still says it’s an open investigation 10 years later.
"Well, we were told that there wasn’t enough blood on say, a hammer or a pair of shoes, stuff that they had used," Sherman said. "There wasn't enough blood, wasn’t enough evidence on there to use it against the people that did this. They did find a little bit of stuff but they said it wasn't enough evidence on there to prove who did what."
10 years is a long time without closure, and this family could really use some.
"And I know there's people out there that know stuff," Sherman said. "I wish they'd just come forward and tell them and so that they could get solved and my kids could get closure."
You might have all the information the Big Spring Police Department needs to give this family closure.
"If they have any information they can contact CrimeStoppers," Sherman said. "I think there's still a $1,000 reward out there."
A reward that in exchange could finally give Lou and her family answers.
NewsWest 9 has reached out to the Big Spring Police Department but because this is an active investigation, they declined to give any information.
They did say if you have any information to reach out to Detectives Sergeant John Haynes at (432) 264-2558 or you can contact CrimeStoppers at (432) 263-TIPS (8477).