Well before the sun peeked over the horizon on Dec. 11, 2023, a car pulled up outside of Eduvina Maldonado’s downtown Greeley apartment.

Her daughter Duvie had a visitor, Duvie’s boyfriend. He had called Maldonado about 15 minutes prior and was there to pick up her daughter.

Duvie — “like Doobie with a V,” she’d tell everyone — ran down the hallway and gave one last “I love you” to her mom before opening the apartment door and heading out.

The next time Maldonado’s door opened, officers were on the other side. They told Maldonado her 47-year-old daughter was found dead, just two hours after she ran out of the apartment so full of life.

“When she got the news, she was in disbelief,” Duvie’s sister Lupe Barela said. “She just kept telling the officers, ‘No. She was just here. She’s just told me she loved me.’ ”

Barela said Maldonado, who went by “Big Duvie” for years while her daughter was alive, was in the early stages of cognitive decline. When the police delivered the tragic news, Maldonado’s condition worsened rapidly.

“There were about three weeks straight that she would wake up and start getting ready for Duvie’s funeral,” Barela said. “And she would break down every time we told her it had already happened.”

Now, anytime Maldonado hears her daughter’s name, she begins to spiral. She can’t help but wonder about the worst of the details that she likely will never know.

Duvie’s cause of death: multiple blunt force trauma, likely from getting hit by a vehicle, Weld County Coroner Michael Burson determined from the autopsy. The manner of death? Still a mystery nearly 18 months later. But not necessarily for a lack of trying.

“We remain committed to solving (Duvie’s) homicide,” the Greeley Police Department said. “Losing a loved one is never easy, and our thoughts remain with her family as we continue the investigation.”

Duvie was found unresponsive in the back seat of the vehicle her boyfriend had picked her up in. Barela said he acquired legal representation and has refused to answer questions.

Since that day, Duvie’s family feels like they’ve been left with more questions than answers. Many sleepless nights, countless tears shed and plenty of screaming into pillows trying to rationalize what happened.

Despite all the pain, Barela said she’s been trying to remember her sister’s life, not her death.

“It took me a very long time to realize that all this anger I’m holding on to is not going to bring her back,” Barela said.

That change in perspective, however, has only made her mission to keep her sister’s legacy alive more meaningful. Because, as she said, Duvie would never let you forget about her.

She didn’t live her life quietly, so her family feels it’s not fitting that she left the world so quietly. With no arrest made in her case, it has garnered little attention from those outside of her immediate family. Barela said she still gets messages from people who knew Duvie.

Some are wondering where she has been. Others are just learning of her death all these months later and want to give their condolences.

That was the philosophy behind a balloon release Barela organized June 16 — on what would have been Duvie’s 49th birthday. Dozens of her friends and family gathered at Lincoln Park — just blocks from where she was last seen — to honor her memory and reminisce about the person they can never forget.

Duvie was born in 1976 in San Jose, Calif., and made her way to northern Colorado when she was about 10 years old. It quickly became her home.

Her life changed around 2002, when a woman from a local church gave Duvie her first Bible.

“She credits Kathy Gardner as the one who showed her the way,” Barlea said, “the one who put her on that path.”

From then on, Duvie’s faith meant nearly everything to her.

When going through her sister’s things after her death, Barela came across a box of a dozen Bibles, she said. Each one was filled from front to back with notes Duvie had taken and reflections she had made while reading them.

Through the worst times in her life, Duvie never lost faith. It is what kept her going when she and her beloved dog, Caesar, were kicked out of their apartment because she refused to give him up.

And it’s what kept her going when she lost her father in 2017.

Now, it’s her family members who must have faith. While an 18-month investigation without an arrest has worn on them, they haven’t given up.

The police declined to release more information as the investigation continues. Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the department at 970-350-9605.