It was supposed to be just another day at work for 24-year-old Angel Anthony Rojas — a husband, a father, and a man who took pride in helping grieving families find peace.

Instead, it became the day his own family’s world shattered forever.

Weighing nearly 2,500 pounds

It’s a grim reality but every day in America, hundreds of workers leave for their jobs and never make it home. In 2023 alone, an average of 385 people died each day from hazardous working conditions across the country.

Behind those statistics are not just numbers, but lives – sons and daughters, husbands and wives, parents and friends whose absence leaves an ache that never fades.

One of them was 24-year-old Angel Rojas; a devoted husband, a young father, and a man who just wanted to come home.

Angel, an employee at Restland Funeral Home in Dallas, was working with heavy equipment to move concrete burial vaults when one of them, weighing nearly 2,500 pounds, suddenly fell on top of him.

Pinned beneath the crushing weight, Angel did what any husband would do in his final moments: he called his wife, Nataly Galaviz.

“My husband was pinned under a vault pleading for help, pleading for air,” Nataly said through tears at a press conference on October 28.

“He just wanted to be held and was scared. He told me he wanted to go home.”

Angel Rojas last message

The voicemail he left hem, his last message, has since haunted her.

“He told me he loved me and he wanted to go home,” she said softly.

When first responders arrived, Angel had been trapped for more than 45 minutes.

Firefighters used hydraulic spreaders and airbags to lift the concrete vault and free him, but by the time he reached the hospital, it was too late. Angel was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

“He was a smart worker,” Nataly said. “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.”

Angel had been working by himself, something his family’s attorney says should never have happened.

“There is no way on earth this man should have been operating that machinery alone,” said attorney Matthew Graham of J. Alexander Law Firm, according to CBS.

“He shouldn’t have been working alone. He shouldn’t have been moving things of that weight alone.”

A gross negligence lawsuit underway

Graham says the family plans to pursue a gross negligence lawsuit against Restland Funeral Home, alleging the company failed to protect Angel from unsafe working conditions.

“If there’s one thing we can do for his memory and for this family,” Graham said, “it’s to try to keep this from happening to anybody else, to try to bring some attention to this, and shed some light on what’s going on over there.”

Restland Funeral Home released a brief statement to local media, 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 (OSHA) has opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Angel’s death.

At just 24, Angel leaves behind his wife and their young son, Angel Noel, who turns four next month. Nataly says her husband loved his work — helping families find comfort during their darkest times — and was proud of what he did.

“He was proud of what he was doing for families, helping families and being there during their grief,” she said.

Dreamed of buying a house for his family

Just a week before the accident, the young couple had been dreaming about the future, talking about buying a house and starting a new chapter together.

“We were just talking about a home a week before he passed,” Nataly recalled. “He wanted land.”

Now, all that remains are memories, a little boy who will grow up without his father, and a voicemail — one final, fragile moment of love captured in time.

“He told me he loved me and he wanted to go home.”

No one should ever have to die just for doing their job. Angel’s story is a heartbreaking reminder of the real human cost behind workplace negligence — and of the families left to carry that pain forever.

May Angel Rojas rest in peace, and may his loved ones find strength in the love he left behind.