Inset: Angel Rojas (Nueva Vida Funeral Home). Background: Rows of burial vaults and caskets at the work site where Angel Rojas was fatally crushed last week, Oct. 20, 2025, in Texas (KTVT/YouTube).
A Texas funeral home worker was fatally crushed by a burial vault, with his wife recounting how he left her a voicemail while pinned under the concrete tomb, saying, "He told me he loved me and he wanted to go home." The woman is now considering potential legal action for negligence.
"My husband was pinned under a vault pleading for help, pleading for air," Nataly Rojas told reporters at a press conference this week about her husband Angel Rojas' death in Dallas, according to local ABC affiliate WFAA.
"He was scared," Nataly Rojas reportedly said. "He told me he wanted to go home."
The grieving widow says Angel Rojas, 24, was working for Restland Funeral Home using heavy equipment to move concrete burial vaults, which are protective receptacles used to shield caskets and bodies from exterior elements, at a storage yard when one of the vaults fell on top of him. Angel's body was reportedly pinned to the ground; he made two calls immediately after the incident — one for help, and another to his wife, which went to voicemail.
"He just wanted to be held," Nataly Rojas recalled about what was said. "He told me he loved me and he wanted to go home."
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Dallas Fire Rescue told WFAA that when firefighters arrived, they reportedly found Angel Rojas pinned from the waist down by the vault. First responders were able to lift the receptacle using hydraulic spreaders and air bags to free him after more than 45 minutes of being under the vault. He was rushed to a local hospital and pronounced dead upon his arrival.
"My husband was a smart worker," Nataly Rojas said at this week's press conference. "My husband knew the risk of a small error. My husband knew the precautions to everything he was doing. I don't know what happened. But whatever did happen, he never should have been there alone."
Nataly Rojas and her family have hired a lawyer, Matthew Graham with the J. Alexander Law Firm, for possible legal action against the Restland Funeral Home that employed him. "We believe it is grossly negligent of Restland for them to have put him in that position and for them to have caused his death, frankly," Graham said during this week's press conference.
"What we know about this situation is that there is no way on earth this man should have been operating that machinery alone," Graham charged. "He shouldn't have been working alone. He shouldn't have been moving things of that weight alone."
The funeral home did not respond to Law&Crime's requests for comment Tuesday, but did provide a statement to WFAA saying, "We are saddened by the loss of our long-standing valued employee. We are cooperating with the authorities to determine the cause. His family and his fellow Restland employees need our support and we ask that we all give them space and time to grieve."
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is reportedly investigating the circumstances surrounding Angel Rojas' death and probing whether there was any wrongdoing, WFAA reports.
"It's a tragedy, it truly is," Graham said, noting how Nataly Rojas is currently weighing her legal options, including a gross negligence lawsuit. "If there is one thing we can do for his memory and for this family is to try to keep this from happening to anybody else."
