PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — The girlfriend of a Palm Beach Gardens Lyft driver who was found dead in Okeechobee County said Tuesday that her life partner was a man who loved people and loved to make others laugh.
Kathi Ginsberg told WPTV's Chris Gilmore during a live interview Tuesday afternoon that the past few days without Gary Levin have been "hell."
"I really wanted to just die," she said. "Without Gary, there was no life. It was just, he took care of the dogs every day. He took care of me every day and anything I needed, he got for me. He would go shopping for me. He was just, most men aren't like that, but this was a golden man."
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Ginsberg said she moved from Philadelphia to South Florida to be with him.
"He wanted to move here, so I came with him," she said.
Ginsberg said he wasn't making as much money here as he was in Philadelphia, but part of the reason he started working as a Lyft driver was to connect with others.
"He enjoyed people," she said. "He's a people person."
Ginsberg said the 74-year-old would often comfort riders, "just like a daddy would."
"He was just so, so, so good that way," she said.
Levin disappeared Jan. 30 after picking up a passenger in Delray Beach.
A man's badly decomposed body was found Saturday in a wooded area of Okeechobee County. Although the Florida Department of Law Enforcement has not revealed the identity of the victim, Levin's daughter said in a Facebook post that her father is dead.
Multiple sources told WPTV that the remains are of Levin.
State Attorney Thomas Bakkedahl said Tuesday that Matthew Flores is a person of interest in Levin's death. Flores, who is a murder suspect in Hardee County, was caught driving Levin's Kia Stinger in North Carolina.
Ginsberg said she still doesn't know how Levin was killed.
"Was he shot and thrown in a river or any other kind of disgusting way?" she said.
But she hopes that people will remember Levin as "the kindest, sweetest, most fun guy."
"He always was laughing," she said. "He always made people laugh. He was just a pleasure to be around."