SAN DIEGO -- 10News confirmed a lawsuit will be filed Thursday against Tiffany St. Ives, the woman accused of fatally hitting 17-year-old Marlene Resendiz with her car and going to great lengths to cover it up.

In November 2007, weeks before her wedding, Resendiz was struck and killed as she crossed an Escondido street. More than two years later came the arrest of St. Ives, the head of a sanctuary for farm animals.

Prosecutors said St. Ives cleaned her car with bleach, fixed it with junkyard parts, repainted it and then tried to sell it in Mexico, before a friend turned her in.

"It's disgusting, cruel and horrible. How can a human being who cares so much for animals not rescue a person she just hit? She took much from our family that she needs to be held accountable for her actions,” exclaimed Resendiz's cousin, Monica Santa Cruz.

Amid the family’s outrage, a $75 million lawsuit will be filed against St. Ives and the shelter. Dan Gilleon, the family’s attorney, said he believes that she was on the job and the amount of the lawsuit is fair.

Gilleon explained, "It was such a heartless act on so many levels. The message that needs to be sent is if you commit a crime like this and go to great lengths to cover it up, you should spend the rest of your life paying back the family you’ve harmed so much."

The dollar amount of this lawsuit is not unprecedented. In 2006, a civil jury awarded more than $100 million in the death of Greg de Villers, who was poisoned by his wife Kristin Rossum, a toxicologist at the San Diego County Medical Examiners Office. The amount was later reduced to $14 million.

Once again, millions could be at stake in the Resendiz case. Gilleon said, "The animal sanctuary is a corporation, so it should have insurance, and we believed Ms. St. Ives has substantial assets." Gilleon also said that those assets plus an insurance payout could add up to millions.

St. Ives' criminal trial is expected to begin later this year.