HOUSTON — In an emotional news conference, the daughters of 62-year-old Elsa Mikeska pleaded with the public to help put their mother’s killers behind bars.
Miskeska was gunned down outside a southeast Houston gym early last Thursday morning. Surveillance video showed the suspects follow her into the parking lot in a white Suburban. They ambushed her and shot her when she tried to run inside Life Fit Gym on Fuqua.
Mayor Sylvester Turner called it a “heinous crime by a couple of cowardly criminals.”
He helped raise $10,000 to add to the Crime Stoppers reward, bringing the total to $15,000. That number is 713-222-TIPS (8477).
“Someone out there knows something,” Turner said at the news conference. “Pick up the phone and call Crime Stoppers and help get these dangerous criminals off the streets.”
The victim’s three daughters also pleaded for someone to come forward if they have information about their mother’s killers.
“Our mother loved this city, and this has been really hard for us but seeing the support has been overwhelming and so touching and we appreciate that,” Lauren Harrigan said. “We need justice for my mother.”
“My mother had a lot of life left in her. She did everything she could to live a long, active life,” another daughter said. “She had grandchildren and great grandchildren and some of them will never know how fun she was, how good she was.”
Mikeska’s husband told KHOU 11 reporter Anayeli Ruiz that he became worried when she didn’t return from the gym and didn’t answer his phone calls. He drove to the gym to look for her.
"I see her car in the parking lot, and I see her laying in the parking lot with a sheet over," Steven Mikeska said as he choked back tears. "To see her laying there on the concrete, she died by herself.”
Turner said there’s way too much crime and gun violence in our city and everyone needs to pull together to help stop it.
“The circumstances of each murder may be different, but the crime rate is unacceptable and must come down.”
The mayor said other money raised will be used to increase the reward for other unsolved murders in Houston.
“We mourn the loss of all lives and share in the heartache of the victims’ loved ones.”
The suspects are described as three men in their 20s, clean cut with a skinny build. They were last seen driving a 2000 to 2007 white suburban. If you have any information, you are urged to call Crime Stoppers at (713) 222-8477.