LAKE CITY, Fla. – The fiancé of a man who was killed early Sunday morning in Columbia County says she was on the phone with him when the tragic moment occurred.
According to Florida Highway Patrol, the 31-year-old was standing outside his car that had broken down on State Road 100 in Lake City when an SUV came up and fatally hit him.
Amanda Ulicky says the man was her soon-to-be husband Brandon Neal Estep.
According to his fiancé, Estep, who went by Neal, had run out of gas after helping a friend in Daytona and was pushing his car.
“I heard everything go silent,” Ulicky recounted. “I heard the phone hit the ground. I heard everything.”
She continued, “I was the last one to say ‘I love you’ to him on the phone. He took his last breathe while I was on the phone with him.”
Ulicky said Neal was a U.S. Army veteran she described as “funny” and “outgoing.”
The two also share a 2-year-old daughter named Arianna, who Ulicky hopes remembers her dad as “loving” and “noble.”
“I haven’t been home all day. It’s been hard for me,” she said. “I’m going to bed in an empty bed without my fiancé. And that is the toughest thing I’ve done…It’s a pain I wish on nobody. He was the love of my life. He will always be a part of me.”