Gloria Colocho knew something was wrong when her tenant and friend didn’t answer her phone. “I called her and it went straight to voicemail, and from there, I had this feeling that it was her,” Colocho told ABC 7. Her instincts were right, as her tenant Antonia Mendoza Chavez was identified Thursday as the 52-year-old who was killed by a lightning strike while walking her dogs in Los Angeles on Wednesday. The two dogs, Luna and Chubby, were also killed in the freak strike. “I’m saddened, but at the same time I know she is in heaven and that she was a sweet lady,” Colocho said, describing Chavez as a “sweet lady.” Surveillance footage video given to ABC 7 by Colocho shows Chavez, a mom of two, in her last moments, leaving to walk her dogs on a path near the San Gabriel River. She walked Luna and Chubby every day, Colocho said. According to the National Lightning Safety Council, Chavez’s death is the first U.S. lightning fatality for 2022.
