Police had not found the car’s owner as of Tuesday afternoon, and would not say whether they know that person’s name.
Witnesses described the driver as a white male who stopped after the collision, then fled without getting out of the car, police said.
Lopez was struck on Redland Road, 200 feet before the intersection with Muncaster Mill, said Sgt. Meredith Dominick, head of the county police department’s Collision Reconstruction Unit.
The intersection was recently repaved, and did not have crosswalks or lane markers, a visit to the location showed. The intersection does not have a speed camera, police said.
Coming to grips
The Lopez family got word that police had located the car on Sunday. It buoyed them through a ‘‘somber, reflective” church service at Gaithersburg Community Church, said the Rev. Tony Arnold, Lopez’s uncle and the church’s head pastor.
‘‘It was a sense of answered prayers, a sense of comfort. We’re hopeful that the law of justice will prevail,” said Arnold, who guided Lopez through birth, baptism — and now, burial. Lopez’s funeral is today at Gaithersburg Church of the Nazerene.
The tragedy has left the family with 17 years of memories of a life full of promise and energy. Lopez was ‘‘a comedian in his own way,” Arnold told reporters Friday at a press conference at county police headquarters. He was an outgoing teen who loved to take over the grill at barbecues and dreamed of becoming a chef. And he was always there with a helping hand, Arnold said. He and his nephew talked just a few weeks ago about going to Darfur or Rwanda with a church group next summer.
‘‘We have lost someone who represents the heart and soul of our family. His middle name is Angel. He was really an angel to us,” Arnold said.
Lopez’s death has been particularly hard on his mother Leslie, an art teacher at Earle B. Wood Middle School in Aspen Hill.
‘‘Her heart is really heavy. She’s taking some time off to reflect, to be by herself,” Arnold said Monday.
‘‘Character is developed no matter how long or short a life is. Esai had tremendous character,” he said.
Remembering a friend
A throng of mourners last week remembered Lopez at a vigil near where he was hit crossing the street with two friends. Neither of those friends was hurt.
When Jose Lopez Jr. called for silence in memory of his little brother, the impromptu reverie stretched for more than five minutes. Crickets hummed and cars zipped by in the background. Sobs broke out, and were calmed with a hug and whispered comfort.
Friends and family began to pray, and then to sing. They leaned on each other as the vigil lingered past the two-hour mark. Later, they laughed, as they remembered their lighter memories of Lopez.
When Lopez’s friend since sixth grade, Ashley Graham, heard from the two friends the night of the accident, she broke down crying — praying as she clutched a T-shirt that Lopez had given her two weeks before.
‘‘He didn’t have problems with anybody,” she said Thursday, as she helped organize the vigil. ‘‘Right now, it’s unbelievable. I’m really missing him. It’s really not hit me yet that he’s gone. He was a good friend. He was everybody’s good friend.”
Police Seek Help
Anyone with information about the July 31 incident is asked to call county police at 301-840-2345 during daytime hours or 301-279-8000 during evening hours.
