Jan. 16—The parents of a young woman who died in a recent hit-and-run near Eldorado still hold out hope authorities will find out who fatally struck their daughter, 24-year-old Maeve Long, and then fled.

Losing a child is “the most wrenching thing” a parent can endure, Joe Long and Elizabeth Ryan-Long of Eldorado said in an interview Tuesday.

They have been living “moment-to-moment” since the Jan. 2 incident on Interstate 25 and leaning on their faith and their friends and family.

“We’ve been kind of displaced into this new life that we’re forced to live,” Ryan-Long said. “It’s surreal.”

She added, “I don’t feel anger, but I would like to know more, if possible, about what happened and who was involved.”

Maeve Long was a student at Santa Fe Community College and a graduate of Santa Fe High School. She was studying to be a computer programmer, her parents said, and had plans to soon transfer to another college to earn a degree.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the hit-and-run but has not yet identified any suspects.

Long was outside her vehicle — parked on the southbound shoulder of the interstate — when deputies believe she was stuck by another vehicle.

Her car was turned off with the doors closed when she was found lying on the ground next to it, her father said. It isn’t clear why she might have stopped her car and got out.

Investigators hope the incident was captured by a nearby surveillance camera, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Denise Womack-Avila said.

She added deputies have not yet filed any reports on the incident.

Joe Long said he has “a lot of unanswered questions” he hopes will be answered by the investigation.

Since their daughter’s death, the couple have been staying at a friend’s rental property.

“We can’t bear to go home,” Ryan-Long said. “It almost doesn’t feel like our home because it’s missing her.”

Others who knew Maeve Long are also mourning the loss.

Mariah Rivera, who had been friends with Long since they participated in high school band together, said she and many other friends are still shocked and confused by her death.

Long had played the bass clarinet and was a percussionist, and Rivera played the flute, she said. She described her friend as “very adventurous” and “not a quiet person at all.”

“She had a whole life ahead of her,” Rivera said.

Long also sang in the high school choir, participating for two years in the New Mexico All-State Choir.

She continued to sing as an alto and soprano in several choruses, including the Sangre de Cristo Chorale and the Santa Fe Symphony Chorus.

She sang with her father in the choir at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, where she and her family were parishioners, for the midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

“She was very, very talented musically,” her father said, adding the two once had an opportunity to sing together with the choir at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

As a child, Maeve Long attended several schools in Santa Fe and performed in a children’s theater group based in Eldorado.

She took an interest in astronomy and space photography, her mother said, creating paintings and photographs of the moon, planets and stars.

The family has received support from members of their church, her daughter’s choirs and others, she said.

“We’re definitely being held up by the community and by the love and the prayers that people are sharing,” Ryan-Long said.

“We are just trying to figure out how we are going to live this new life,” she added. “I just can’t picture it.”