‘Always had a smile on his face’ Daughters grieve father after tragic shooting death
A week has passed since a Haywood County man was murdered. His daughters want the public to know about their father, and they’re looking for some help to pay mounting expenses.
Steven Hilton’s two daughters say after his sudden death a week ago, it’s up to them to pick up the pieces and pay for his funeral.
It was Memorial Day morning when Maggie Valley police say a shooting took place on Dellwood Road. A shot rang out taking the life of 46-year-old Steven.
“My dad didn’t deserve what happened to him,” says Kimberly Hilton.
She and her sister Hannah are suddenly having to figure things out alone.
“There’s a lot going on,” Hannah says. “It’s just us.”
The suspect, 42-year-old Eriberto Cardenas of Hendersonville, is charged with murder, possession of a firearm by a felon and possession of a controlled substance on jail premises and remains in jail.
“Eddie, who was arrested — Eriberto — he was my dad’s best friend,” Kimberly says. “My dad was there for him through anything. He knew he could count on my dad.”
Steven, his daughters say, ran a custom home business, starting out in Hendersonville but recently moving back to his home county of Haywood.
“He built townhouses. He built whatever you could throw his way, he built it,” Hannah says.
“He was the only one who could do this in a few counties. Always working and he worked to always help people. He would give you the shirt off his back. He always had a smile on his face. Anything that was going on he was smiling about it,” says Kimberly.
“He’d make a joke in the worst time, and you’d be — angry or upset — and he’d make a joke and you’d just laugh at it with tears in your eyes, whatever, like it just faded away. That was my dad,” says Hannah.
His dog, Storm, was an equal part of the family.
“His dog was like…he called her our sister,” Hannah says.
It’s a young family. Hannah and Kimberly with their kids.
”A little baby. She’s one. And there are my two kids who are 5 and 2,” says Kimberly.
Hannah says her baby has heart and lung issues.
“I can’t work. I have to be a at home caregiver,” she says.
“If they would have met my daddy, they would have known that he was a great joy,” says Kimberly.
