Family Remembers Father of 7 Dragged by Car, Killed While Trying to Sell Cell Phone

LAKE COUNTY, IL - Trinidad Bueno-Sanchez, the father of seven, is being remembered by his children as a devoted dad who didn't deserve to die the way he did last week in the parking lot of a Meijer in Round Lake Beach, according to ABC 7. Bueno-Sanchez, 43, was attempting to sell his phone to a group of teenage girls, one of whom had purportedly agreed to pay a set amount for it over the popular online application Offer Up, when they gave him only a fraction of their agreed upon price, police said. While the 43-year-old man was leaning inside the vehicle and discussing the discrepancy in price, the driver accelerated, dragging Bueno-Sanchez along.

Bueno-Sanchez eventually became detached from the vehicle and fell and hit his head on the pavement at about 8 p.m. on April 24, according to police in Round Lake Beach. Bueno-Sanchez died the next day at Advocate Condell Medical Center.

• Get News Alerts and Newsletters from Patch
  

Bueno-Sanchez's daughter, Lily Olmos, told ABC 7 his father was very involved in the lives of all his seven children.

"He was there for everything - band concerts, any type of concerts. He took us to prom, he picked us up from prom. He just did everything for us. He never said no. He was always there for all seven of us," Olmos said. Bueno-Sanchez also leaves behind his wife and four grandchildren.

Family and friends will gather Wednesday for a visitation for Bueno-Sanchez from 5 to 8 p.m. at Bradley Funeral Home, 313 10th Street in North Chicago. A funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday at Holy Family Church 405 Keller Ave. in Waukegan.

Meanwhile, funds are pouring in for the family after a family friend set up a GoFundMe page.

"I am raising money to help the family with the cost of his funeral and medical expenses," Tina Rompala wrote on the GoFundMe page. "This has been a very traumatic experience for the whole family and I just want to try and make it a little easier."

So far, over $6,000 has been raised for the Bueno-Sanchez family.

Authorities have filed charges against three of the teens who were in the car at the time of the cell phone sale. Courtney A. Sherman, 18, of the unit block of Tweed Road in Fox Lake, and two 17-year-old girls have been charged with reckless homicide in connection with Bueno-Sanchez's death, police said.

Bail has been set at $500,000 for Sherman. The teens were being held at a juvenile detention center, police said.

The robbery, which was planned by the teens, went horribly wrong, police said.

“Young people don't think of the ramifications of their actions,” Round Lake Police Department Deputy Chief Michael Scott told WGN News. “They think of what they're planning on doing and they don't think of the things that can go wrong … with this, everything that could have went wrong did, and it can't get more serious than it is right now.”

• Offer Up Cell Phone Sale Leads to Reckless Homicide Charges: Police
  

Photo via GoFundMe