WESTON, Fla. – New images and information have surfaced about the 22-year-old Weston man who fled the country just as prosecutors were getting ready to charge him in the deaths of three of his friends.
Prosecutors say they were killed in a Miami-Dade County crash while Luis Grateron was driving drunk. Grateron’s Snapchat post weeks after the crash last March shows a distinctive scar left from the crash.
Friends who are now making it public believe the Snapchat post could include details that could help authorities track Grateron down.
“All he had to do was take his foot off the gas, and he didn’t, so that’s unforgivable to me,” said Frank Hernandez, whose 21-year-old daughter Daniela was killed in the crash.
The other two victims were Shelley Rapp, 20, and Diego Ortiz, 21. A witness said they were in the back seat begging Grateron to slow down, as he was speeding down the Palmetto Expressway, according to the arrest warrant.
The warrant outlines the evidence that places Grateron behind the wheel of his turbocharged 2018 Volkswagen Golf on the morning of March 8th after partying in Wynwood.
Data collected from the vehicle wreckage indicates Grateron was traveling 147 miles per hour in the minutes before the crash. The surviving passenger said Grateron “raised his middle finger” toward a Florida Highway Patrol trooper as he sped by him.
“Flicking off the police officer, speeding at 147 miles an hour ... those were negligent, conscious decisions,” Hernandez said.
Evidence indicates Grateron flew to Switzerland and then Croatia in October. He has family in Spain.
Local10 News reports about the manhunt have been shared in the community, in a storefront in Weston, and internationally on social media. One of his friends in Germany who saw a post reached out via text to say he had contact with Grateron last month, having no idea what he had done.
The mugshot from Grateron’s previous arrest can now be publicly updated with the more recent images he posted on Snapchat after the disaster. One of his South Florida friends, who requested anonymity, believes the updated video will help in the manhunt.
“That is something he’s not going to be able to hide, erase, no surgery can get rid of,” he said. “He’s going to be very distinctive on any street with that scar.”
Grateron faces three counts each of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide. But to face justice, authorities have to find him, go through an extradition process, and fly him back to Miami-Dade.