Gilroy High School graduate Sade Moralez survives accident only
to be struck, killed by truck on Highway 101
By Jessica Thy Nguyen Special to the Dispatch

Gilroy – Former Gilroy High School student Sade Tina Marie Moralez, 21, was struck by a vehicle and killed Friday morning on northbound U.S. 10, according to California Highway Patrol.

Heading home after a late Thursday night dinner with her boyfriend, Moralez lost control of her 1995 Volkswagen Golf as she entered onto northbound U.S. 101 from eastbound Leavesley Road shortly after midnight. She crashed into the guardrail on the east shoulder of the freeway, crossed the three lanes of northbound 101 traffic and hit the center divider, ending up in the fast lane.

Moralez got out of her vehicle and was struck by a 1996 Dodge Ram driven by Joel Bush, 36, of Santee. Moralez was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:22am.

Moralez’s boyfriend and passenger in the Volkswagen, Joshua Cousins, 23, from Hollister, suffered lacerations to the back of his head and was taken to Regional Medical Center of San Jose, where he was released Friday, according to Miesha Hardy, hospital spokeswoman. Bush was uninjured.

The accident remains under investigation.

Moralez was a middle child with two older brothers, Rudy Jr. and Ray, and younger sister Kimberly. Her parents divorced when she was 5 and she lived with her father, Rudy Moralez Sr. in Morgan Hill most of her life. After 7th grade, she moved to Gilroy and lived with her mother Evon Vallez for about a year. She lived with her grandmother Mary Herrera for the period of time she attended Gilroy High School.

“She was very outgoing, she loved people, and she loved to talk to people,” Vallez said of her daughter.

A few years after her 2003 graduation, Moralez moved in with Tanya Isbell, now 21, and Isbell’s grandfather in Morgan Hill. Isbell, Moralez’s best friend, said they met in the third grade and said they even shared the exact same birthday.

“I’ve known her for 13 years. She was my best friend, my sister, and she was always going out of her way to make everyone happy,” Isbell said. “She was always hyper and fun-loving.”

Although Moralez did not attend college after graduating, she worked and planned to get her real estate license, Vallez said.

“She wanted to settle down with Joshua [Cousins], and she wanted to move away,” she said. “She talked about getting something secure for herself.”

Moralez had just started working in the deli section at Safeway at Hamilton and Meridian avenues in San Jose.

“[Sade] wouldn’t want people to be sad for her because she [never] liked seeing people sad,” Isbell said.

Cesily Carrillo, 18, was a Gilroy neighbor and close friends with Moralez.

“She was really feisty for being really little, only around 5-feet tall,” Carrillo said. “But she was tough.”

Carrillo said they were able to go see Moralez’s favorite band not to long ago, Taking Back Sunday, along with other friends.

“She was a really fun person to be around,” she said. “She loved her friends and always put them first.”

Moralez is survived by her parents, two brothers and one sister, two nieces and nephews, seven uncles and six aunts.

A charity car wash will be held from 10am to 2pm today at the Sno-White Drive In, 16290 South Monterey, Morgan Hill.

Moralez’s family has also set up accounts located at Washington Mutual and US Bank. To donate, just ask for the memorial account for Sade Moralez and Mary Herrera.

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