Investigation continues after man struck by car was found nearly 40 miles away from incident

The victim has been identified as a 45-year-old who police believe was homeless. He was known to stay in the area near I-30 in Cockrell Hill Road in Dallas County where deputies Saturday found evidence of a crash and human remains believed to belong to him.

White Settlement police say the discovered the rest of the man’s body, after getting a 911 call.

“I’m at the Jack in the Box,” a woman says in a recording of the call. “I just came through in the drive-thru. And there was a guy in the car. It looks like he’s been in a car wreck. He’s just slumped over in the seat and I just wanted to make sure he’s okay.”

Responding officers found a gray Kia in the parking lot with significant front end damage.

Slumped in the driver’s seat, they say, was Nestor Lujan Flores. In the passenger seat next to him, behind a gaping hole in the windshield, was a body.

Police later learned of the crash scene the Dallas County deputies had found.

They now believe Flores struck the victim there and then drove 38 miles away with him in the passenger seat next to him until that car finally gave out.

“There was a pool of radiator fluid. The car’s got extensive damage. And so our belief is the car would not start back up,” said White Settlement Police Chief Chris Cook.

Flores has been arrested on pending charge of intoxication manslaughter, while police await the results of a blood alcohol test they expect will show he was under the influence.

“Once we placed him in the backseat of our car, the officer commented that it smelled like a brewery,” said Cook.

It’s not the first time Flores has been charged with an alcohol related crime.

He convicted of a DWI after Plano police in 2020 pulled him over for speeding on the Dallas North Tollway. A police report shows he admitted at the time to drinking four glasses of wine.

While showing an officer his phone, the report notes, he received a text message from his brother reading “you driving drunk.”

Police say Flores on Saturday told them he thought he’d hit a deer.

They believe he drove from his home in Arlington to the Dallas area around 6 p.m. The crash is believed to have happened in Dallas County between 8 p.m. and 8:40 p.m. The discovery in White Settlement didn’t happen until 11:15 p.m.