UVALDE, Texas — Fourth grader Eliahana Cruz Torres was excited and nervous for her last softball game of the season on Tuesday, but didn't survive the school day. The ten-year-old was one of 19 children killed in Robb Elementary elementary school in Uvalde.
Her family spoke to KENS 5 on Tuesday, asking anyone with information on her whereabouts to contact them because they hadn't heard from her.
"We are in disbelief of this tragedy that happened and we have not yet gotten any answers of where her whereabouts are at," the girl's aunt said. "Please, if anybody has any news on her, any hospitals that have any information on her, please reach out to us."
The Texas Department of Public Safety has confirmed that 19 students were killed in the shooting, along with two adults and the suspected shooter. Torres was among those killed, but her family spent hours waiting for information as authorities worked through a devastating crime scene.
"We have no idea (where she is) and it's not like her," she said. "It's not like my niece not to reach out because when she feels that she's threatened or scared, she's always calling on her cell phone. She'll blow up somebody until somebody answers her. And up to right now to this minute, we have not gotten a one phone call from her. And her phone is off."
Torres' aunt spoke about the process that some families are currently going through as authorities work to identify the students killed in the school.
"They would ask you for a picture, just a picture, the description of what they were wearing this morning," she said. "And it was hard. They did take my sister to the back to identify, thinking it was my niece, but it wasn't my niece."
Later in the evening, authorities asked family members for DNA samples to help identify the remains.
"I'm just praying that my little one is okay," she said. "I believe in the power of prayer and I believe that I want to tell myself that she's okay. And I'm going to keep telling myself that she's okay and she's going to come home."
This was the last week of school for Uvalde, and Eliahana was feeling mixed emotions ahead of the last softball game of the season. She spoke about it with her aunt, neither knowing it would be the last time they talked.
"She was very excited about her softball game today. She was kind of nervous," her aunt said. "I talked to her last night and she was kind of nervous, saying that it was her last game and she didn't want softball to end. And she was excited because there were gonna, I guess, announce the ones that made it to all stars. And she was also saying like, 'what if I make it? I'm gonna be so nervous.' And I was like, 'girl you got this. You're gonna be good at it. You got this.' So she was excited."