Michael Rumberger, a 34-year-old father of two, didn’t often drive a cab for the Jersey City company where he worked. He was mainly a dispatcher, but last Saturday, he was bored and decided to end his shift earning fares, his friend said.

He picked up two passengers at the Hudson Mall in Jersey City, said another friend who has spoken to detectives investigating the case.

Rumberger took the passengers to a moving company on West 1st Street in Bayonne where he was shot in the head after a struggle, his former girlfriend and mother of his child, Yiesena Nunez, told NJ Advance Media. His cab was then driven about 1 mile away to 17th Street and John F. Kennedy Boulevard in Bayonne, where the car was left with his body in the trunk, according to Nunez and authorities.

Nunez said the two passengers were David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50. Authorities have identified Anderson and Graham as suspects in Rumberger’s death. Three days later, the pair killed a decorated Jersey City detective in a cemetery and then three others in a kosher supermarket Tuesday in Jersey City in what is being described as an act of domestic terror aimed at Jews and law enforcement, according to authorities.

Authorities have not released details on what happened to Rumberger, and have not confirmed Nunez’s account. Nunez said detectives have surveillance videos from each location.

Nunez, who met Rumberger in middle school and had a child with him, said she wanted to talk publicly about Rumberger to let people know he was much more than “just some regular cab driver,” she said.

“I feel my daughter's father needs a voice and no one else is stepping up,” she said.

Nunez said detectives briefed her on the incident, but she didn’t want to go into specifics about the evidence supporting the claims.

There are “so many different stories floating around and I need to be the one to set the record straight,” she said.

On Saturday, Rumberger was working at Grove Taxi & Airport Limo on Grand Street in Jersey City when he called his best friend, Priscilla Salamanca.

They would often FaceTime, which led to cracking jokes, listening to music and singing, Salamanca said. Salamanca met Rumberger more than 10 years ago when she and her friends needed a taxi home from a party and Rumberger pulled up.

“He was the funniest, goofiest guy,” Salamanca said. “He just put a smile on your face immediately. He just made your day every day.”

Recently, Rumberger had begun talking about getting a new job, trying to “better himself,” Salamanca said.

On Saturdays, he often split his shift between dispatching and driving.

When he called Salamanca last Saturday, he said planned to drive that day.

Rumberger was scheduled to pick up his 17-year-old daughter after 2 p.m., Nunez said.

Rumberger never showed, she said. She said she knew something was wrong because that was unlike him. When the owner of the cab company couldn’t get ahold of Rumberger, he tracked the GPS coordinates of his cab to 17th and John F Kennedy Boulevard in Bayonne and called police sometime later on Saturday, Nunez said.

In a statement, Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said police found Rumberger in the trunk with trauma to his head. The cause and manner of his death are pending the outcome of an autopsy, Saurez said.

David Anderson, 47, and Francine Graham, 50New Jersey Attorney General's Office

At a press conference on Wednesday, Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Anderson and Graham are suspects in Rumberger’s death.

Rumberger’s 17-year-old daughter has started an online fundraiser to raise money for her father’s funeral. The fund has exceeded its $5,000 goal.

On Sunday night, approximately 50 people gathered at the site where his body was found for a memorial service. On the curb there sits several half-smoked cigarettes, empty bottles of Heineken and Maker’s Mark whiskey, and about two-dozen candles.

Rumberger’s blood, Nunez said, was still on the street.

“I’m sure they (Anderson and Graham) would have done it regardless if it was Michael or someone else. Unfortunately, it was him,” Nunez said. “Wrong place at the wrong time.”

NJ Advance Media reporter Sophie Nieto-Munoz contributed to this report.

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Alex Napoliello may be reached at anapoliello@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @alexnapoNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Joe Atmonavage may be reached at jatmonavage@njadvancemedia.com. Find NJ.com on Facebook.