Monica Cameroni De Adams, a homeless resident of San Diego, California, was sleeping in her parked van when tragedy struck last November. Her car was crashed into by drunken 25-year-old Jordan Lopez. Authorities arrested Lopez and towed the crashed car away, but didn’t check to see if anyone was inside.

De Adams unfortunately passed away in the back of her car. However, her remains weren’t discovered until a month later when employees smelled something horrible coming from the van in the impound lot. Her family filed a missing person’s report after she never responded to texts wishing her a happy birthday.

Today, her family is suing the city of San Diego for $50 million for failing to look for signs of life before towing the van away to impound. The family argues De Adams didn’t perish immediately, and needed medical attention before ultimately succumbing to her injuries.

“Her death was proximately caused by leaving her alone, struggling with her injuries inside of her car, entombing her in her car, taking her car to impound, and leaving her there to die,” John Carpenter, the families lawyer, told KMFB.

An autopsy suggests she died from the crash, maybe before she arrived at the impound lot

The city’s autopsy explained she died from blunt trauma caused by the crash. Still, her family believes the report’s wording of, “severe but survivable,” suggests she could have been saved if city employees checked her van before it was towed to impound.

“Just because someone is homeless doesn’t mean that they don’t have a family that loves them. Things are difficult. It’s easy to overlook people who are homeless, but they do have loving families and they do matter. This story exemplifies that,” the family’s lawyer continued.

The family’s claim hasn’t been answered by the city, so the lawsuit is likely coming soon. Reporters contacted the city for comment, but it did not respond.

Viewers think the family will win the lawsuit

Almost 400 people responded to the outlet’s coverage of the incident. All of them were empathetic to the family’s cause.

“How do you not check a wrecked car to see if someone was in it? Incompetence all around. Disgusting,” one viewer wrote.

Another said they couldn’t comprehend how she was left in the car after the accident.

“Why wasn’t the car searched thoroughly after the wreck? There is no excuse for what happened here, regardless if she lived in a car or not,” their comment read.

Someone else put themselves in De Adams’ shoes.

“So wait, she was possibly still alive and they did nothing? And had the vehicle towed, and she possibly died in agony in impound? That is absolutely horrific,” they wrote.