The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in finding out how a man ended up on fire on the side of Highway 101 south of Gilroy and later died last Friday.
Deputies responded at 2:48 a.m. last Friday after California Highway Patrol officers found a man burning in a fire on the side of Highway 101 in the area of the Sargent overcrossing, sheriff's officials said.
The man, later identified as 40-year-old Gilroy resident Jerry Mungaray, was taken to Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in critical condition and died late Friday night.
Jasmine Richards, Mungaray's sister, wrote on Facebook to ask for help in solving the case, saying her brother was last seen Thursday night in a verbal confrontation with people in two cars in front of a 7-Eleven store at 162 E. 10th St. in Gilroy.
"We are asking for help to get these sick people off the street," she wrote.
The sheriff's office in a news release Tuesday did not mention an altercation at the 7-Eleven or any other events that may have led up to Mungaray's death, but asked anyone with help to call their Investigative Services Division at (408) 808-4500 or an anonymous tip line at (408) 808-4431.
