Hit-and-run memorial missing in Volusia Co.

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35) - It survived a hurricane and lasted almost a year on the side of the road, but Sunday, the small patch of grass along Seabreeze Boulevard was noticeably empty. 

The flowers and memorial for Justin Alexander Gary was there the night before, but friends and family said it's now missing.

A close friend of the victim, Renee Shoultes, cared for the memorial by checking on it and changing it's flowers. 

She said she was outraged when she found it missing.

"It's worse than having your heart ripped out," she said. "It's worse than having your heart stomped down."

Gary was just 24-years-old when he was killed on a motor bicycle in July 2017. 

Officers later learned that a truck hit Gary on the shoulder of the Seabreeze bridge.

Witnesses told police the driver rammed Gary, dragging him about 50 feet before fleeing.

Shoultes remembers Gary as "a guy that everybody would want as a friend. He just loved life and loved living."

The man suspected of killing Gary, Christopher Alan Whealen, turned himself in January.

The trial is still on-going. 

Friends and family of Gary hope to find and restore his memorial.