“I don’t know what happened,” Maria Ortiz said of son Gilbert. “I feel so helpless. At this moment, I’m just trying to get him home”
NEED TO KNOW
- Gilbert Ortiz, 31, died after falling during a hike at South Mountain in Arizona last week
- Now his mother, Maria Ortiz, is speaking out and says he was preparing to move back to the Pacific Northwest to start a new career
- A GoFundMe has raised thousands to help bring his body home and cover memorial expenses
A devastated mom is speaking out after her son died in a hiking incident in Arizona last week.
“I don’t know how to carry on,” Maria Ortiz told Arizona’s Family of Gilbert Ortiz, 31, adding: “He was always working. He never had a vacation. He never did things.”
Maria, who lives in Oregon, said that before his death, Gilbert spent more than a decade in auto tech and was getting ready to pursue a new career in cybersecurity…