Downey resident Jason Daniel Garcia loved music and his family and when the two combined, family said he was at his happiest.

“Family and music has always been very important to him,” said Monica Cabral, Garcia’s aunt, recalling the man who spent most of his young life living in her home, surrounded by grandparents, siblings and loved ones.

When Cabral and her family received the news that the 36-year-old Garcia was killed and his body was found inside a refrigerator Tuesday morning at Mission Boulevard and Campus Avenue, the news devastated the close-knit family.

Ontario police have not released a motive in the slaying and are still actively investigating his death.

On Wednesday, Ontario police said a light-colored pickup truck that was believed to be carrying the fridge had been stopped on Tuesday night in Ontario. The truck was impounded. No arrests were announced.

“It was hard because you don’t expect someone his age to die and then to have it happen the way it did and with the news coverage, it has been very hard to the family,” the Riverside woman said.

Both of her parents, who helped raise Garcia and his siblings, refused to watch television and instead remembered happier times with their “funny and silly Jason,” she said.

“My dad kept remembering helping the boys put their bikes together when Jason was about 6 when the boys and my sister lived with us,” she said.

They shared stories about the 36-year-old who was always humming a tune and listening to the latest music.

One of the favorite stories they told was one that he enjoyed recounting: The times he met with rapper Snoop Dogg.

“He would tell us, ‘It’s not about the marijuana. He’s a good person. He coaches his kids’ football team,’ and things like that,” Cabral said laughing through tears, remembering how family would tease him about his encounters with the Long Beach rapper.

But her fondest memories are of Garcia and his brothers when they all lived under the same roof, just being boys. A time before cellphones, before internet and before the proliferation of video game consoles, she choked up remembering her nephews outside riding their bikes and their skateboards, getting skinned knees.

Despite their parents separating when Garcia and his brothers were young, Cabral said the boys’ father kept a close connection with them.

“He was actually living with his dad in Downey,” she said.

Before that, he spent time in Utah with his mother.

It was that solid familial base that followed him into adulthood, she said, and made him a good father to his two daughters and son.

“He and his wife were going through a divorce but he didn’t let that stop him from spending time with his kids,” she said.

Within the last few weeks, Garcia spent time with his father and children — Alicia, Jason Jr. and Leticia — during a family get-together, Cabral said.

His father, Jose Garcia, posted pictures of the happy gathering on Facebook, but lamented the loss of his youngest son.

“I love you son,” he wrote. “Hope you find peace with the Lord. You will always be in my heart and in my soul.”

Cabral acknowledged that Garcia had been going through some rough times recently but she said neither she nor her family knew exactly how deep those issues went.

“We’re going to find out the cause of his death and what led up to it,” she said sternly. “We don’t know if it has anything to do with his struggles but we don’t want to remember him that way. We want to remember him like the loving person he was and how much he cared about his family. That’s what we want people to know about him.”

Cabral started a GoFundMe account to help the family raise money for his funeral.