LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Unease. Instability. Threats. Violence. These are the types of environments domestic violence survivors flee from, seeking shelter where they can.
However, one local woman's family says when she did that — not once but two times — she found herself in harm's way again.
WATCH: Family seeks justice for domestic violence victim who left shelter, died in car crash
As Mother's Day approaches, nine-year-old Nesta and her seven-year-old brother David remember days gone by.
"When it was Mother's Day, we got to pick out Mother's Day gifts," Nesta remembered. "So I decided to pick out a teddy bear for her."
They spent that Mother's Day, about seven years ago, at the SafeNest domestic violence shelter, where their mom, Brittany Sanchez, fled with them to escape an abusive relationship.
"I remember being so scared, dropping her off at a gas station," Brittany's mother, Shawn Sanchez, told me. "And these people, that I had no idea who they were, came and took my grandkids and my daughter and I wasn't allowed to know where. And after that, I realized what a great organization they were. They helped her so much."
"It was a great program," added Brittany's sister, Tiffany Sanchez. She says Brittany, Nesta and then-infant David stayed at SafeNest for about six months in 2018.
"They helped her build up her self-esteem, which is very taken away when you're an abuse victim," Shawn said.
"They put her on a program where they found her housing and helped pay her rent up a little bit until she was able to find a new job and to start her new life," Tiffany added.
But as is often the case with domestic violence victims, Brittany eventually fell back into the cycle of abuse and her family says she turned to SafeNest once again last December.
"This time, she told me she was going and I was so excited," Shawn said. "I felt that this is gonna be the first time I'm going to be able to sleep through the night knowing that my baby was safe."
However, Shawn says her optimism was short-lived.
"She called me and said 'Oh my god mom. This place is nothing like it was before!'"
Brittany's family says she called them daily from the shelter.
"She was immediately letting us know that she did not feel safe there. She said the program was really different from when she experienced it the first time. Before, when she was there, everybody had chores. Everyone was in charge of a certain chore and she said this time it was disgusting. They didn't have anything. No organization set up. It was very dirty. She did say that there were drugs. She said that they didn't have any of the programs that they had before."
And Shawn says when Brittany sought help...
"She called me again and she said 'Mom, the advocates, I have no advocates talking to me. I keep calling them. I keep asking for help. Nobody's helping me here.'"
Other clients have provided email and text chains to 13 Investigates expressing the same concerns about lack of access to their advocates.
WATCH: Rhetoric vs reality
Tiffany says there was one final straw for her sister.
"There was actually a situation there where one of the ladies' abusers made it inside the premise and got inside to his victim. So when she saw that, she was like oh no, I don't feel safe here."
Her family says after about a week at SafeNest, Brittany left. Still fearing for her life and hiding from her abuser, she spent several nights sleeping in her car at a truck stop near Losee and Cheyenne.
"And she said I just went and parked my car and hid between trucks. She goes, I felt safer at a truck stop than I did at SafeNest and she refused to go back," Shawn said.
For a while, Brittany was safe. However, the 39-year-old died in a rollover car crash on February 24.
"My daughter lost her life! She's left behind children!"
The Sanchez family believes Brittany's car crash was no accident. North Las Vegas police confirm that her boyfriend who she lived with, 49-year-old Juan Esteban Sanchez, was in the car when it crashed.
Brittany's family says witnesses to the crash have told them that he was beating her in the head while she was driving.
North Las Vegas police tell me their officers took statements from several eyewitnesses on scene and that, "The passenger, Juan Sanchez, was located by officers in a neighborhood near the scene of the rollover."
One witness shared video with 13 Investigates of Sanchez being loaded into an ambulance. Police say he was taken to UMC Trauma for medical treatment. But to date, he has not been charged with anything.
North Las Vegas police detectives are currently investigating to determine what caused the single-car crash. Because it's an open case, they would not release the police report.
We began investigating Juan Sanchez and uncovered a criminal history that spans two states and stretches back 25 years. Records we obtained show he has two criminal convictions in California. Here in Las Vegas, in 2024, he was arrested five times between May and December. Multiple felony charges include child abuse or neglect, domestic violence with a deadly weapon, attempted home invasion with a deadly weapon, battery, and more. Brittany is the victim in most of those cases. Police reports show she was pregnant with Sanchez' child when she died.
When Brittany's family went to clean out her apartment after she passed, they found doors torn off hinges, mirrors ripped away, holes in nearly every wall, and her camera system gone.
In a social media post, Tiffany wrote that she felt as though she failed Brittany.
"I did. I was her big sister. I was her protector."
The family keeps going to back to what might have been, had Brittany gotten the help she needed.
"I know that if they would have kept her safe, and she felt that she was in a safe place, and she had the resources to find a new place and do everything they did before, I absolutely think that she would still be here," Tiffany said.
While they await the results of the North Las Vegas police investigation into the car crash, they hold on to memories.
Hugging his teddy bear from the first time they were at SafeNest, David says, "It still reminds me of my mom."
Nesta says if she could still talk to her mother, "I would tell her that I love her, and I would not want her to go."
Citing client confidentiality, SafeNest has told us it does not comment on individual experiences.
We will update this story when North Las Vegas police determine the cause of Brittany Sanchez' car crash.
As for Juan Esteban Sanchez, we've been unable to reach him for comment. He's scheduled for a preliminary hearing this month on two counts of felony child abuse. He's also due in Las Vegas Municipal Court in June on a separate case.
