22-Year-Old Man Killed on FDR Drive was Loyola H.S. Alum

The 22-year-old man who was struck by two cars on the FDR Drive in East Harlem the day before Thanksgiving was a graduate of the prestigious Loyola High School, Our Town has learned.

Justin Siguencia was the son of Ecuadorian immigrants who had settled in Belleville, NJ. Police said that Siguencia was lying down in the left lane on the northbound side of the FDR near 105th Street in East Harlem when he was struck by two vehicles. The drivers of both vehicles, a 35-year-old man driving a 2026 Honda Odyssey minivan and a 45- year-old woman driving a white Mini Cooper, had remained on the scene. No arrest had been made, according to the NYPD.

The news hit hard at Loyola, an exclusive co-ed prep school on East 81st Street, located just over a mile away from the fatality. Siguencia graduated from the school in 2021.

“Justin was a wonderful young man who will be greatly missed by all,” Loyola principal Tony Oroszlany told Our Town. “I never heard a single person ever say anything but great things about him. . . . We held a prayer service for him at Loyola, and members of our community attended the wake and funeral. He is a focus of our prayers.”

Police said they had no clear idea on why Siguencia was on the FDR shortly before midnight, according to reports, lying down on the highway. The portion of the FDR in East Harlem is at street level, but the nearest pedestrian overpass is at East 79th Street, more than a mile away. There are several southbound entrances at 102nd Street and 116th Street. To get to the northbound portion of the highway, however, someone would likely have had to navigate through traffic on the southbound side of the highway first.

At the time of his death, Siguencia was working as an analyst at Bank of New York Mellon Corp., a banking giant where he had interned between his junior and senior year before getting hired in August this year, several months after his May 2025 graduation with a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan.

One of his co-workers at BNY, Christina Shaw, posted how she had been talking with him about celebrating Thanksgiving only days before he died.

“Justin, we just spoke last Tuesday as you sat next to me all day at work. We were having such a good time laughing and talking about Thanksgiving. This, my young friend, is how I am going to choose to keep your memory alive. A young man, happy, full of life and a wonderful co-worker. You were a joy to be around. It is true, only the good die young. May you forever rest in the grace of our Lord and may your family and friends find comfort in the very difficult days ahead.”

“As the first generation of an immigrant family, Justin carried with him his family’s dreams, hopes, and determination with extraordinary grace and pride,” according to the obituary posted by his family. “A young man of exceptional character, he was known for his loving, kind, and humble heart. An outstanding student at the University of Michigan, he graduated with honors in 2025 with a degree in Economics. He was the pride and joy of his parents, family, and friends, who were blessed to witness him achieve his goals and dreams.”

A funeral Mass was held at St. Peter’s Church in Belleville, NJ, on Dec. 1, and Siguencia was laid to rest at Glendale Cemetery in Bloomfield, NJ, later that day. He is survived by his parents, Manuel Siguencia and Greis Ochoa, and an older brother, James Siguencia. While Justin was born in Belleville, NJ, “his family emigrated from Ecuador in search of a better future,” according to his obituary.