Her friend Evelyn Irene said Yepez had gone to see a friend who was contemplating suicide on Aug. 5.
"She went at 2 a.m. to go see her friend and around 5 in the morning, she ended up leaving," recalled Irene. "At 5:17 a.m., she texted her boyfriend, 'Hey, I am with this friend. I am walking home right now."
But Yepez never made it home.
According to a Montclair police official, Yepez was struck by a hit-and-run driver minutes after sending that text.
"They just left her here, like, they didn't try to check on her," said Irene. "They didn't call the police, they didn't do anything. Somebody walking had to call the cops."
Yepez was left with two broken legs, a broken arm, and is now on life support. Police say they arrested the driver three hours after the crash.
The family has identified the driver as 18-year-old Issac Velasquez Panfilo.
Court records show he was released after pleading not guilty to felony hit-and-run charges.
"She would have been alive if he had done the right thing, but instead, he just left ... left her there," said Yepez's aunt Joselyn Guerrero.
The family made the decision to remove Yepez from life support the day after the hit-and-run.
"We're super broken," said Guerrero. "I hope that person that did this to my niece gets what he deserves. We want justice."
Yepez is being remembered for her kindness to others and for the meals she made them.
"She wanted to be a chef. That was the biggest thing. She wanted to wanted to be a chef, her cooking was the most amazing cooking ever. She was so good at it," said Jaslene Orrosquieta, Yepez's longtime friend.
A GoFundMe has been created to help lay Yepez to rest.