PALM BEACH, Fla. — Kathi Ginsberg smiled through the grief at a Monday morning breakfast held by the Kind Kitchen of Palm Beach as the organization held its breakfast for volunteers.
Her friends at the charity helped her remember the good times she shared with the late Gary Levin, the Lyft driver whose body was found in Okeechobee County nine days ago.
Ginsberg said at the Kind Kitchen, where she and the Palm Beach Gardens man worked as volunteers, she felt his spirit and smile.
"He was a joker," Ginsberg said. "And sometimes we need jokes at times like this."
RELATED: Timeline of disappearance, death of Lyft driver Gary Levin
She said Levin helped her find a circle of friends at the Kind Kitchen, a group that feeds the needy and lonely, believing that giving a meal is an act of kindness.
Ginsberg also believes her late boyfriend would be comforted by the group's kindness toward her as she grieves.
"He would be overwhelmed," Ginsberg said. "He would be grateful. He'd want to talk to every single person in here because that's how he was."
No arrests have been made in Levin's death or disappearance.
Investigators named Matthew Flores as a person of interest in Levin's disappearance.
Sheriff's deputies in North Carolina said they caught Flores after a high-speed chase Feb. 2 in the car Levin used as a Lyft driver.
In a separate case, prosecutors in Hardee County have charged Flores with the shooting death of a 43-year-old man.
Rutherford County North Carolina District Attorney Ted Bell said that if Flores demands a jury trial on charges relating to the chase that ended in his county, he'll try Flores in North Carolina before agreeing to extradition to Florida.
"We could dismiss our charges and say, 'Florida, come get him,'" Bell said. "But that's not how we operate in our jurisdiction. We're not really inclined to give somebody a pass, even if they have something more severe waiting for them somewhere else."
As Ginsburg enjoyed the company of her fellow volunteers at the Kind Kitchen, she said she wants justice for whoever is responsible for Levin's death.
"They're Satan if there is a Satan," she said. "They're the most evil thing on this earth, and they don't deserve to live."
