MOLINE, Illinois-- Nearly two months ago, a 20-year-old Muscatine woman was found dead on the side of the road in Lee County.
On Saturday, Aug. 4, 2018, Sadie Alvarado was riding with her boyfriend, 28-year-old Damian Hamann, from Donnellson to Morning Side, Iowa. Hamann told police they were south of West Point, Iowa when they got into an argument and Sadie jumped out of the car.
Now, her father Ruben Alvarado says he has many unanswered questions about his daughter's death.
"What happened?" Ruben says. "What really happened? And still, to this day, still wondering what happened."
Hamann is being charged for "leaving the scene of a deadly accident," according to court records. Hamann told police after Sadie jumped out, he drove home to Morning Sun, Iowa and returned the next day to look for her. He's in court on Friday.
"You just see her jump out and you go on for 45 miles, home? And you come back, what, 12 hours later looking for her? So yeah, I'm a little angry," Ruben says. "Maybe she was a little injured. Maybe she needed some help. Maybe she would've still been here, still be here with us. That's the thing I don't know. That's what I want to know."
But Ruben says there are other questions he has about the night his daughter died.
"What made her jump supposedly out of a car?" he says. "What was going on? What made her do that? I respect the detectives, and I'm not trying to obstruct... the case. But there are times when we want to know things. I'm her dad. Her mom, we want to know."
He says he's been struggling to get information from law enforcement and asked the League of United Latin American Citizens in the Quad Cities to help him navigate the networks and processes for learning more about his daughter's death. The LULAC Deputy State Director Maria Bribriesco says the organization will help him file a formal request for Sadie's autopsy report and to schedule a sit-down meeting with the case agent.
"If you believe what the boyfriend Damian says, her body should have been found on the right side of the road, heading to Morning Sun," Maria Bribriesco says. "But the body was found on the other side, going the opposite way."
The criminal complaint says Sadie's body was found on the north side of 235 Avenue in West Point, Iowa. Special Agent in Charge Rick Rahn says more information about Sadie's death can't be released at this time. He says the investigation, being conducted by the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, is still open and won't be closed until the charges against Hamann work through the court system. Rahn also says the autopsy report has not been completed.
Ruben says he'll be in the courtroom on Friday, hoping to learn more about the night his daughter died.
WQAD reached out to Hamann's lawyer, who didn't want to comment on an ongoing court case.
LULAC says it will host a gathering for missing and murdered indigenous women on October 20 at 1 p.m. in Muscatine, Iowa. Bribriesco says Sadie will also be remembered at this event.
