Husband and wife roofers, Angel and Victoria Hurtado, were hired by Guadalupe Roofing to work on a shed owned by developer, Rip Miller, in July 2004. Victoria said the couple never signed an employment contract, but rather accepted a verbal agreement with a man they'd been introduced to through a nephew.

"The person who hired us gave us the key," Victoria said. "He said he wanted it done fast."
The couple arrived on a Sunday at the project inside a gated utility complex on the Senna Hills development in West Austin. Victoria said her husband got up on the shed's roof while she prepared nails on the ground.

She said they were carrying on a conversation as they worked when suddenly there was no response.

"I looked up, and I didn't see him. He was gone," Victoria said.

Angel had fallen about 15 feet and landed on his neck. Victoria said she found him on the cement floor.

"I said, 'Angel, get up. What's wrong?' He didn't respond. I touched his heart and I saw blood start to come out of his nose and his ears," she said. "I just held him."

Paramedics arrived and pronounced Angel dead. According to police reports, an OSHA inspector also came to the scene. The couple's son, Christian Hurtado, said he remembers the inspector giving him a ride to the hospital.

"He was asking me why he (Angel) was working on Sunday, [and] why he wasn’t given any harness or any kind of protection," Christian said.

Those questions were never seen through, because after that day, Angel Hurtado disappeared from OSHA's records. The agency told the family the case could not be found. YNN's recent request under the Freedom of Information Act yielded the same response.

"It's like Angel didn't exist, like nobody ever knew him," Victoria said.

YNN asked OSHA for an interview to explain what happened. After waiting a month, we took the police records, in person, to OSHA's Austin office. A receptionist said Area Director Casey Perkins was at a conference and would not give his direct contact.

Our request to speak with another OSHA representative was denied. She said she had "absolutely no comment" to the story and would not allow our cameras inside the reception area. She referred questions to the Department of Labor's Public Affairs Office in Dallas, which is the original office through which YNN has been unsuccessfully petitioning for an interview.

Meanwhile, Angel Hurtado's family continues to struggle with their questions.

"That’s even the worse part," Christian said. "How come this person comes [and] gets all the information he needs. Then he doesn't make any record about it?"

OSHA did respond to YNN via phone following our visit. A spokesperson in Dallas said because Angel's name never appeared on a payroll, OSHA could not determine an employee-employer relationship. It, in essence, frees the contractors from blame.

"Wash away the blood, repaint the ground, and it never happened," Victoria said.