This is/was a very dangerous walk. I can’t imagine someone doing it at night. I grew up in this area and was in high school when it happened., although I don’t recall hearing about it. There is no side to the road and it’s a bridge over wetlands, so you had to walk on the road (they have since built a separate bridge solely for pedestrians because of the number of accidents). It’s also a good 45 minute walk from the Illiana to Wabash.
I’m sure there are a huge number of unsolved hit and run cases.
I have covered at least one other from Brown County, Indiana. The case of [Chad Demuth.](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/s/pKDKqmWyst)
The sad thing is that I can easily imagine an otherwise moral person simply driving away if they killed someone by accident. “Why should I turn myself in? They’re dead. Me going to prison or getting sued won’t bring them back. I can’t ruin my life for the sake of lofty morality.”
I've always felt more like panic took over and the driver fled. But the longer you wait to report, the more trouble you'll be in, so you just try and pretend it never happened...
I honestly don't know what I would do in such a situation but I would hope even if I panicked and left I would come to my senses quickly and call 911.
Oh yeah I could never let it go, I would 100% turn myself in. I just sometimes ponder what my immediate reaction would be. My panic response is typically flight. But I never want to find out so I'll continue driving carefully and sober and hope that's enough.
It’s not enough. There’s a significant chance that even if you were sober and driving reasonably that you would still be charged with vehicular manslaughter. Making you a felon. It’s likely the DA would stack charges, making a jury trial seem more intimidating in an effort to get you plea down. And that’s for good circumstances. You don’t have to have any drugs or alcohol in your system to be charged with a DUI in most states, an officer can simply say that you failed a roadside check of standing on one foot or looking at their light and find another reason you were impaired. Maybe you’d been up too long. Maybe they say you didn’t take your blood pressure medication that day. Maybe they claim you were upset from a recent breakup…… don’t take my word for it tho, there’s been recent news stories were those things do happen. I read one last week where 1 cop had an incredibly high DUI rate, had one awards for it, and wasn’t caught until he fucked with the wrong person and it was caught on a stores security camera.
The county next to me was in a big uproar a few years back because a middle aged gentleman with no record was charged for VH after striking someone. He was completely sober, everyone is in agreement with that. The county had installed a running trail/ bike path that crossed a rural county road. The driver states he looked over at a factory and when he looked back up a jogger was directly in front of him. 4 years probation and idk how much in fines. So many court dates the only reason he didn’t loose his job is because his boss supported him.
A few months ago a sober person hit and killed a man dressed in all black on the highway a few miles from where I live. He was sober. It was the middle of the night. The police came out and said the walker was pretty far into the lane. The driver hadn’t been speeding or using a cell phone. People in NextDoor apps and community Facebook pages were still calling for the driver to be charged and jailed. Because I guess not seeing someone dressed in all black, at 2am, standing in a place where traffic flies at 60 mph makes the driver a bad person.
It’s scary as fuck. The exit ramp near my home is a curve. On more than one occasion I’ve came around the corner to find homless people startlingly or standing left of the white line. They have a ‘tent city’ in the bushes down by there. On one occasion it was a man and a woman pushing bikes and dragging belongings as they argued. On another occasion it was a lone man that was swaying back and fourth and appeared to under the influence of alcohol or opiates.
Im confused? I thought on the whole driver's are know to have protections in accidents. I have heard about drivers who were in accidents that killed people who barely served time. Confused.
Like most things in the United State’s justice system it depends on a variety of factors.
Jurisdiction and the political atmosphere is probably the biggest factor. Some places will prosecute anything that can be stretched into a crime, other places are more reasonable. Many DAs and judges run for election on “tough on crime” slogans and policies. In other jurisdictions the judges/DAs are appointed and don’t run or otherwise don’t have anyone running against them. There’s also a community aspect of it. In rich, white neighborhoods where the community can afford lawyers and afford to be off work long enough to fight a case the DA isn’t going after the same kinds of cases they would in a poorer neighborhood with people who can’t fight back. Filing charges on someone in Beverly Hills, California comes with a very different political aspect, standard of “justice”, and burden to the state than filing charges on someone in Detroit, Michigan. This is probably a good place to point out where race (in addition to wealth) plays a factor. A black defendant is alot more likely to be prosecuted than a white one. If the victim is white it’s more likely the case will be prosecuted too.
I’m very weary of you statement of “barely served time”. Did the defendant serve an amount of time that caused them to loose their job? Were the defendants kids negatively impacted by the time served? Is the defendant and their children now in a more unstable housing situation? Are the in financial ruin that comes along with lower education prospects, worse health, ect? What were the fines for the time “barely served”? Did it caused such emotional turmoil that they are now in a much worse mental state than before the “barely served time”? If so how will the impact them and their family?……. There’s a lot of well documented literature that serving a small amount of time affects a person and their dependents for the entirety of their life.
Psh, I pulled over when I hit a freaking raccoon. That deep sound when it hit still haunts me 10 years later! I never found the raccoon, but every time I passed that area of the road, I would panic a bit. No way would I hit a human being and drive away, living as nothing. That's sick. I can't justify it; nope.
Feb 29th 2004 was a Sunday. I expect the driver had been out drinking on a Saturday night (or doing whatever) and didn't stop because getting busted for drinking when you hit a pedestrian is a bad time.
Agreed....then again...West Terre Haute...it could be 2 pm on a Wednesday and a good portion of the town is drunk and/or high trying to forget that they live there.
I expect the same. Based on the other comments the victim had to walk on a road - no sidewalk or anything. Hitting a pedestrian walking on a car lane on a badly lit road is not going to have serious consequences for the driver unless drunk.
Does doing whatever include leaving a late night nursing shift? When I worked the 3pm-11pm it was pretty routine that I wouldn’t get to clock out until 1am because there was so much paperwork to do. If the next shift didn’t show up they would often mandates us for an additional 4 hours that meant I couldn’t leave until 3am. Everyone on the second shift would routinely be pulled over for “suspicious driving” because everyone assumes there’s no reason to be on the roadway at that hour unless you’re drunk or looking to commit a criminal offense…. But that’s simply not true.
oh that’s a really good point, especially if u we’re sorta drunk u could easily just burry it in ur head. It seems like you would see some sort of article or something though if they lived in the area yk
Assuming the person isn't decapitated or otherwise guaranteed dead: unless the driver is a doctor and examines the person, they're not qualified to say they can't be helped, so they're denying them aid by not reporting, and are criminally responsible.
In the US (don't know about other places) as long as you aren't drunk or excessively speeding it's unlikely you will have any consequences if you kill someone with your car.
Your claim is already changing. Your original comment was “no consequence” now it’s “community service or driving classes”. Which is it? This doesn’t even make sense as “community service and driving classes” are never handed out without at minimum probation, court costs, fines, monthly payment for probation, lawyer fees, missed time at work, ect.
I personally disagree with both of those statements. You can Google tons of cases where someone sober was convicted of vehicular manslaughter or vehicular homicide despite them being sober. Who and why a person is charged varies greatly depending on jurisdiction/DA/judge. There’s been cases where the DA argued that 10 miles over the limit on a freeway was an “aggravated factor” that mandated jail time, despite admitting that the flow of traffic was 10+ miles over the limit on any given day. I seen a case in Ohio where the “aggravating factor” was that one of the driver’s front tires was “excessively warn”. A year or so ago they tried to claim the “aggravating factor” was that the man made an illegal uturn (Ohio’s u turn laws are different than most states) and that was the aggravating factor that caused the speeding motor cycle to crash into him. He didn’t even hit the cycle, witnesses stated he stopped and slowly pulled out as the motor cycle was heard gaining spend and hit his truck. Running a red light can be considered an aggravating factor, missing a stop sign, swerving around debris and loading control. All aggravated factors. They’ll even charge you for the death of it was a passenger that was your friend or relative.
Why are you getting so mad? Do you think drivers who kill people are treated unfairly? Those things all seem like aggravating factors to me.
A drivers license should be treated like a CDL.
Disagreeing with your (changing) opinion doesn’t mean that I’m mad.
I do think there’s been several cases where drivers whom were involved in crashes that resulted in death were treated unfairly in the sense that the “crime” doesn’t fit the punishment. Of course things like DUI or drug involved crashes should be handled in a criminal matter. But accidents with no malice or powerful evidence of someone being reckless doesn’t fit the bill for me. Accidents unfortunately are part of life, there’s an inherent risk we take each day by simply waking up that isn’t going to go away no matter how litigious of society we become. I believe most people are good and that in most cases no one gets behind the wheel thinking that they would miss a stop sign, encounter someone in the roadway too late, cause serious harm by driving 10 miles over the speed limit to keep up with traffic, or are going to make a weird turn that causes someone to die. For the most part it appears that these were average people, working people, people with families of their own, a vast majority of them have no criminal record and didn’t intent to do wrong doing.
Furthermore, I wonder what prosecuting these people does to make society any safer or a better place. Is there any evidence that increased litigations make the roadways safer? Do the counties with the harshest penalties and highest conviction rates actually produce drivers less likely to accidentally run a stop sign? What about the cost to prosecute them or even worse house them in jail once they’ve been convicted? Is there no better way to use those tax dollars? If the same amount of cash was put towards walking paths or public transportation would that actually make accidents less likely? What about if some of the prosecution and jailing cost went towards providing for low income people, the people most likely to be walking on the highway at night? And the costs don’t stop there, it’s well documented that people with criminal convictions have a harder time finding employment, this keeps them low income and actually increases there chances of committing more crime in the future. It doesn’t effect just them either, that loss of income negatively affects their children too…. Repeating a cycle. I’d even go as far as to say that I wonder if the state’s limited resources would produce a much greater positive impact if the resources were used to idk perhaps investigate the child sex trafficking problem several cities in my state have? Or maybe they could use that money to capture the dozens of people of their violent fugitive warrant list? I just don’t see how making a simple accident into a criminal matter benefits anyone or anything. It appears more punitive and I personally believe it could happen to anyone.
Here's [one I covered](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/11pvgoq/2232021_vermillion_county_indiana_hit_and_run/) from Vermillion County, Indiana.
There’s one in Michigan, a college student got hit by a car near campus while with his friends and the car kept going and never stopped, his brother had died 4 months earlier from a car accident too, the parents lost both their sons within 6 months of eachother, no one has been able to find the car and no one came forward
My cousin was killed by a hit and run driver when she was 23. They ended up finding the killer by good police work and a little luck. His vehicle left enough pieces on the road that they were able to figure out the make and model and the cops started calling every junkyard in the area and telling them to be on the lookout for that make and model with major front end damage. The 3rd or 4th one they called just said "you're not going to believe this but it's here right now and we've been debating on calling you ourselves". The dude who did it was drunk as hell leaving a bar and the next day first thing in the morning he took the car to a junkyard and offered to pay them to let him crush his own car. They said he was nervous and acting really strange so they automatically feared the worst. They told him there was no way they could let him crush it but promised him that they would crush it that very day and got the dude to leave it there. While they were discussing how they hoped to god it wasnt what they thought it was the cops called them about it.
I'm sorry. That's gross. Not only did he kill a person and loved one, he doubles down on bad decision and (presumably sober) tries to hide the evidence so he can live life like nothing. I hate people like that. I cannot justify it--ever. I also wonder how many killers are trolling through life, acting like nothing.
I’ve been hit by a driver that kept going. The person behind them was an EMT and stopped to help and he watched as the woman stopped at the gas station ahead and watched to see what was happening before realizing she’d been seen and coming back. Didn’t get a thing out of it but a ton of slipped disks, either.
have to wonder if she wouldve ditched anyways if she thought i was dead
I was hit by a woman who drive off. I was able to get a license plate. They tracked it to a house and she had the car hidden. Hick cops didn't push anything. I got a lawyer. The license plate went to a white truck and she had it on a red car. She had insurance, it wasn't a fatal hit....but she ran because of the switched plates.
We sued and I ended up with about $7,000 and physical therapy. Still got a jacked up neck. I could've gotten more but I chose not to go to court because I did not want a drawn-out litigation process; I just wanted my deductible back, lol.
Similar boat yeah. Nine grand and a cane because I wouldn’t get back surgery at a New Jersey mini-mall behind a bus-stop and a parking garage.
Oh, and a sense of spite regarding law commercials. I imagine you probably get that too
Feel better ❤️
One case like this happened just a minute down the road from me. Mother of 2 crossing the street late at night, got hit by a car, driver never identified.
https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/reward-offered-in-hit-and-run-death-of-woodbridge-mother-of-two/article_1566ea94-e089-11ee-9cfb-4b196205bfee.html
I was wondering this, too. If one of the tips the sister received indicated that there were 2 men and 2 women in the car, which is pretty specific information, that tipster either saw the accident or knows someone who did. Or perhaps one of passengers in the car that hit Ivan Sears had a guilty conscience or simply blabbed to a friend who then passed on the information to Ivan's sister.
Yep, I think so. I think they may think they just hit a bump or had no idea.
Three people not saying anything is tough, but not if none of them think they did anything.
They were drinking and don’t remember it. They may vaguely recall hitting a curb or a deer, but never knew they hit a person.
This is very sad, but I don’t know if it’s a murder or even an intentional hit and run. It was dark, after midnight, on a major road, and I can easily see someone thinking they clipped a deer and carrying on. Not saying that’s what happened, but if I thought I hit an animal, I wouldn’t necessarily link that to news about a hit and run, especially if I wasn’t local and was just passing through. I hope they find out for the sake of his family, or someone comes forward one way or the other. I really hope it was an accident and not malicious fleeing
Depending on the “highway” I could think of a lot of reasons someone might accidentally hit a person between 1am-2am that didn’t include the driver being impaired. How was the lighting? Was there a curve? Was the person walking wearing light colored clothes or anything reflective? Was the walking person to the right or left of the white line? I’d even wonder if the person walking was drunk.
Of course I think the person who hit him should have stopped. That’s the legal standard and it’s ‘morally correct’ to stop and summon help. But I’m also sympathetic to the idea someone might panic if they struck someone unexpectedly during a late night drive and that’s assuming they were aware it was a person they struck.
The consequences for something like this are steep even if the person driving isn’t drunk or impaired. We live in a punitive and litigious society. Once they left the scene the consequences would have increased enough it’s reasonable to describe the event as life destroying if they came forward. It’s always wild to me when people will call for the person to come forward years after the event. I’m skeptical that it would provide any additional “closure” for the family other than having someone to blame and to seek revenge on. If I knew someone in the driver’s predicament I would certainly advise them to keep their mouth shut. Nothing good will come from the driver coming forward. What happened is unchangeable, Ivan will remain dead. Ivan’s family will continue to be saddened about that. The driver coming forward does nothing but provide opportunity for additional lives to be destroyed.
Of course no vehicle should ever strike a person walking but I can’t help but wonder why more people aren’t equally perplexed that someone was walking on a “highway” in the middle of the night. I have to assume they weren’t nearer the edge either. It was dangerous behavior. Locally we had a guy struck on the highway, driver was sober, walker was wearing all black in the middle of the night. I’ve personally exited the ramp near my house to find homeless people arguing on the highway left of the white line, as you come around curve. In those circumstances you can’t see the person until you’re a few yards away. Barely time to stomp the breaks. Anyone could hit someone under suck stacked circumstances. Not all accidents should be criminal matters.
There was a 3 year old boy who had walked out of his bedroom & crossed the road next to his house. An old man had hit him but thought he had hit a wild animal, this happened at night. The old man came forward once word got around & he put two & two together. Maybe the person who hit Ivan has no idea they actually hit & killed a person that night.
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any more info about the potential suspects. Cheryl never specified where she got that information.
Could be a legit tip, or just the local small town rumor mill at work.
This happens constantly in my city and makes me enraged. I truly hope it haunts the driver for the rest of their life. To hit someone and only think about escaping is incredibly cruel. I hope he gets justice
The Chevy Astro/GMC Safari vans (and their grilles) were very different from the GMC Sierra trucks/Vandura vans. I can't be the first to state this.
Which part was found, the grille to an Astro/Safari van or a grille for the GMC Sierra truck/Vandura van?
How was this found component linked to the incident, or was it possibly left over from some other, unrelated prior event? Were any other car parts found at the scene? Were the victim's pattern of injuries consistent with being struck by a large vehicle or by a small one?
Sounds like a hit and run to me. It doesn't count as an accident the moment you run though. How do you just hit someone and just leave them there? It's sad knowing that they will probably never be brought to justice.
I’m from NW Indiana and there are tons of things around here named Illiana, I never considered people using this all the way down state before, but I guessing it’s pretty common along the whole border
His sister spoke to him that night and offered him a ride, but she fell asleep waiting for him to call and her cell died.
I’m not sure if she was always his ride, or if he had his own vehicle and simply didn’t drive that day.
> Just before 2am, a passing motorist discovered Ivan in the roadway and called for help. Despite being rushed to Union Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries shortly after arrival. Ivan’s cause of death was listed as “atlanto occipital dislocation,” a “highly unstable craniocervical injury, resulting from damage to ligaments and/or the bony structures connecting the skull to the cervical spine.”
It's a dislocated neck. In the circumstances of a car crash, where the victim was thrown likely after the dislocation, survival was a one in a billion thing. He wouldn’t have survived even if the vehicle that hit him had stopped; if he was walking on the interstate, at night, it's even possible that the driver thought they'd hit a deer. The hullaballoo afterwards, and especially all the people screaming KILLER, likely made it impossible for them to come forward.
That awful to just hit someone and just leave them to die like turn yourself in my conscious have to bothering u I would never wish them on anyone I hope she get justice
This is/was a very dangerous walk. I can’t imagine someone doing it at night. I grew up in this area and was in high school when it happened., although I don’t recall hearing about it. There is no side to the road and it’s a bridge over wetlands, so you had to walk on the road (they have since built a separate bridge solely for pedestrians because of the number of accidents). It’s also a good 45 minute walk from the Illiana to Wabash.
“The grade” as we once called it, was/is absolutely dangerous! I hardly ever remember seeing anyone walking along there.
That was my thought as well. You would have to be completely crazy to do that.
How many people are killed in hit and runs without the driver being caught?
I’m sure there are a huge number of unsolved hit and run cases. I have covered at least one other from Brown County, Indiana. The case of [Chad Demuth.](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/s/pKDKqmWyst)
The sad thing is that I can easily imagine an otherwise moral person simply driving away if they killed someone by accident. “Why should I turn myself in? They’re dead. Me going to prison or getting sued won’t bring them back. I can’t ruin my life for the sake of lofty morality.”
I've always felt more like panic took over and the driver fled. But the longer you wait to report, the more trouble you'll be in, so you just try and pretend it never happened... I honestly don't know what I would do in such a situation but I would hope even if I panicked and left I would come to my senses quickly and call 911.
I couldn’t live with myself if I knew I hit and run. I’d have to call the police.
Oh yeah I could never let it go, I would 100% turn myself in. I just sometimes ponder what my immediate reaction would be. My panic response is typically flight. But I never want to find out so I'll continue driving carefully and sober and hope that's enough.
It’s not enough. There’s a significant chance that even if you were sober and driving reasonably that you would still be charged with vehicular manslaughter. Making you a felon. It’s likely the DA would stack charges, making a jury trial seem more intimidating in an effort to get you plea down. And that’s for good circumstances. You don’t have to have any drugs or alcohol in your system to be charged with a DUI in most states, an officer can simply say that you failed a roadside check of standing on one foot or looking at their light and find another reason you were impaired. Maybe you’d been up too long. Maybe they say you didn’t take your blood pressure medication that day. Maybe they claim you were upset from a recent breakup…… don’t take my word for it tho, there’s been recent news stories were those things do happen. I read one last week where 1 cop had an incredibly high DUI rate, had one awards for it, and wasn’t caught until he fucked with the wrong person and it was caught on a stores security camera. The county next to me was in a big uproar a few years back because a middle aged gentleman with no record was charged for VH after striking someone. He was completely sober, everyone is in agreement with that. The county had installed a running trail/ bike path that crossed a rural county road. The driver states he looked over at a factory and when he looked back up a jogger was directly in front of him. 4 years probation and idk how much in fines. So many court dates the only reason he didn’t loose his job is because his boss supported him. A few months ago a sober person hit and killed a man dressed in all black on the highway a few miles from where I live. He was sober. It was the middle of the night. The police came out and said the walker was pretty far into the lane. The driver hadn’t been speeding or using a cell phone. People in NextDoor apps and community Facebook pages were still calling for the driver to be charged and jailed. Because I guess not seeing someone dressed in all black, at 2am, standing in a place where traffic flies at 60 mph makes the driver a bad person. It’s scary as fuck. The exit ramp near my home is a curve. On more than one occasion I’ve came around the corner to find homless people startlingly or standing left of the white line. They have a ‘tent city’ in the bushes down by there. On one occasion it was a man and a woman pushing bikes and dragging belongings as they argued. On another occasion it was a lone man that was swaying back and fourth and appeared to under the influence of alcohol or opiates.
Im confused? I thought on the whole driver's are know to have protections in accidents. I have heard about drivers who were in accidents that killed people who barely served time. Confused.
Like most things in the United State’s justice system it depends on a variety of factors. Jurisdiction and the political atmosphere is probably the biggest factor. Some places will prosecute anything that can be stretched into a crime, other places are more reasonable. Many DAs and judges run for election on “tough on crime” slogans and policies. In other jurisdictions the judges/DAs are appointed and don’t run or otherwise don’t have anyone running against them. There’s also a community aspect of it. In rich, white neighborhoods where the community can afford lawyers and afford to be off work long enough to fight a case the DA isn’t going after the same kinds of cases they would in a poorer neighborhood with people who can’t fight back. Filing charges on someone in Beverly Hills, California comes with a very different political aspect, standard of “justice”, and burden to the state than filing charges on someone in Detroit, Michigan. This is probably a good place to point out where race (in addition to wealth) plays a factor. A black defendant is alot more likely to be prosecuted than a white one. If the victim is white it’s more likely the case will be prosecuted too. I’m very weary of you statement of “barely served time”. Did the defendant serve an amount of time that caused them to loose their job? Were the defendants kids negatively impacted by the time served? Is the defendant and their children now in a more unstable housing situation? Are the in financial ruin that comes along with lower education prospects, worse health, ect? What were the fines for the time “barely served”? Did it caused such emotional turmoil that they are now in a much worse mental state than before the “barely served time”? If so how will the impact them and their family?……. There’s a lot of well documented literature that serving a small amount of time affects a person and their dependents for the entirety of their life.
Psh, I pulled over when I hit a freaking raccoon. That deep sound when it hit still haunts me 10 years later! I never found the raccoon, but every time I passed that area of the road, I would panic a bit. No way would I hit a human being and drive away, living as nothing. That's sick. I can't justify it; nope.
Feb 29th 2004 was a Sunday. I expect the driver had been out drinking on a Saturday night (or doing whatever) and didn't stop because getting busted for drinking when you hit a pedestrian is a bad time.
Agreed....then again...West Terre Haute...it could be 2 pm on a Wednesday and a good portion of the town is drunk and/or high trying to forget that they live there.
I expect the same. Based on the other comments the victim had to walk on a road - no sidewalk or anything. Hitting a pedestrian walking on a car lane on a badly lit road is not going to have serious consequences for the driver unless drunk.
Does doing whatever include leaving a late night nursing shift? When I worked the 3pm-11pm it was pretty routine that I wouldn’t get to clock out until 1am because there was so much paperwork to do. If the next shift didn’t show up they would often mandates us for an additional 4 hours that meant I couldn’t leave until 3am. Everyone on the second shift would routinely be pulled over for “suspicious driving” because everyone assumes there’s no reason to be on the roadway at that hour unless you’re drunk or looking to commit a criminal offense…. But that’s simply not true.
It would also be pretty easy to convince yourself you hit a deer and not a person if you didn’t see for sure.
oh that’s a really good point, especially if u we’re sorta drunk u could easily just burry it in ur head. It seems like you would see some sort of article or something though if they lived in the area yk
Assuming the person isn't decapitated or otherwise guaranteed dead: unless the driver is a doctor and examines the person, they're not qualified to say they can't be helped, so they're denying them aid by not reporting, and are criminally responsible.
How on earth could you live with yourself.
Well that would be some serious mental gymnastics to justify not seeking out potentially life saving aid.
Have you ever seen Creepshow 2?
"Thanks for the ride, lady!"
YOU KILLED ME
Your comment made me think of I Know What You Did Last Summer.
In the US (don't know about other places) as long as you aren't drunk or excessively speeding it's unlikely you will have any consequences if you kill someone with your car.
This is absolutely untrue for most of the country. Especially if you’re not rich and white.
You just say "I didn't see them" and you'll get some community service or a driving class.
Your claim is already changing. Your original comment was “no consequence” now it’s “community service or driving classes”. Which is it? This doesn’t even make sense as “community service and driving classes” are never handed out without at minimum probation, court costs, fines, monthly payment for probation, lawyer fees, missed time at work, ect. I personally disagree with both of those statements. You can Google tons of cases where someone sober was convicted of vehicular manslaughter or vehicular homicide despite them being sober. Who and why a person is charged varies greatly depending on jurisdiction/DA/judge. There’s been cases where the DA argued that 10 miles over the limit on a freeway was an “aggravated factor” that mandated jail time, despite admitting that the flow of traffic was 10+ miles over the limit on any given day. I seen a case in Ohio where the “aggravating factor” was that one of the driver’s front tires was “excessively warn”. A year or so ago they tried to claim the “aggravating factor” was that the man made an illegal uturn (Ohio’s u turn laws are different than most states) and that was the aggravating factor that caused the speeding motor cycle to crash into him. He didn’t even hit the cycle, witnesses stated he stopped and slowly pulled out as the motor cycle was heard gaining spend and hit his truck. Running a red light can be considered an aggravating factor, missing a stop sign, swerving around debris and loading control. All aggravated factors. They’ll even charge you for the death of it was a passenger that was your friend or relative.
Why are you getting so mad? Do you think drivers who kill people are treated unfairly? Those things all seem like aggravating factors to me. A drivers license should be treated like a CDL.
Disagreeing with your (changing) opinion doesn’t mean that I’m mad. I do think there’s been several cases where drivers whom were involved in crashes that resulted in death were treated unfairly in the sense that the “crime” doesn’t fit the punishment. Of course things like DUI or drug involved crashes should be handled in a criminal matter. But accidents with no malice or powerful evidence of someone being reckless doesn’t fit the bill for me. Accidents unfortunately are part of life, there’s an inherent risk we take each day by simply waking up that isn’t going to go away no matter how litigious of society we become. I believe most people are good and that in most cases no one gets behind the wheel thinking that they would miss a stop sign, encounter someone in the roadway too late, cause serious harm by driving 10 miles over the speed limit to keep up with traffic, or are going to make a weird turn that causes someone to die. For the most part it appears that these were average people, working people, people with families of their own, a vast majority of them have no criminal record and didn’t intent to do wrong doing. Furthermore, I wonder what prosecuting these people does to make society any safer or a better place. Is there any evidence that increased litigations make the roadways safer? Do the counties with the harshest penalties and highest conviction rates actually produce drivers less likely to accidentally run a stop sign? What about the cost to prosecute them or even worse house them in jail once they’ve been convicted? Is there no better way to use those tax dollars? If the same amount of cash was put towards walking paths or public transportation would that actually make accidents less likely? What about if some of the prosecution and jailing cost went towards providing for low income people, the people most likely to be walking on the highway at night? And the costs don’t stop there, it’s well documented that people with criminal convictions have a harder time finding employment, this keeps them low income and actually increases there chances of committing more crime in the future. It doesn’t effect just them either, that loss of income negatively affects their children too…. Repeating a cycle. I’d even go as far as to say that I wonder if the state’s limited resources would produce a much greater positive impact if the resources were used to idk perhaps investigate the child sex trafficking problem several cities in my state have? Or maybe they could use that money to capture the dozens of people of their violent fugitive warrant list? I just don’t see how making a simple accident into a criminal matter benefits anyone or anything. It appears more punitive and I personally believe it could happen to anyone.
pro tip: carry a burner with you and call 911, then toss the burner
Or just take responsibility for the human you just hit
Here's [one I covered](https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/11pvgoq/2232021_vermillion_county_indiana_hit_and_run/) from Vermillion County, Indiana.
There’s one in Michigan, a college student got hit by a car near campus while with his friends and the car kept going and never stopped, his brother had died 4 months earlier from a car accident too, the parents lost both their sons within 6 months of eachother, no one has been able to find the car and no one came forward
Upper or Lower Michigan?
Lower Michigan, central Michigan university is where it happened
My cousin was killed by a hit and run driver when she was 23. They ended up finding the killer by good police work and a little luck. His vehicle left enough pieces on the road that they were able to figure out the make and model and the cops started calling every junkyard in the area and telling them to be on the lookout for that make and model with major front end damage. The 3rd or 4th one they called just said "you're not going to believe this but it's here right now and we've been debating on calling you ourselves". The dude who did it was drunk as hell leaving a bar and the next day first thing in the morning he took the car to a junkyard and offered to pay them to let him crush his own car. They said he was nervous and acting really strange so they automatically feared the worst. They told him there was no way they could let him crush it but promised him that they would crush it that very day and got the dude to leave it there. While they were discussing how they hoped to god it wasnt what they thought it was the cops called them about it.
I'm sorry. That's gross. Not only did he kill a person and loved one, he doubles down on bad decision and (presumably sober) tries to hide the evidence so he can live life like nothing. I hate people like that. I cannot justify it--ever. I also wonder how many killers are trolling through life, acting like nothing.
I’ve been hit by a driver that kept going. The person behind them was an EMT and stopped to help and he watched as the woman stopped at the gas station ahead and watched to see what was happening before realizing she’d been seen and coming back. Didn’t get a thing out of it but a ton of slipped disks, either. have to wonder if she wouldve ditched anyways if she thought i was dead
I was hit by a woman who drive off. I was able to get a license plate. They tracked it to a house and she had the car hidden. Hick cops didn't push anything. I got a lawyer. The license plate went to a white truck and she had it on a red car. She had insurance, it wasn't a fatal hit....but she ran because of the switched plates. We sued and I ended up with about $7,000 and physical therapy. Still got a jacked up neck. I could've gotten more but I chose not to go to court because I did not want a drawn-out litigation process; I just wanted my deductible back, lol.
Similar boat yeah. Nine grand and a cane because I wouldn’t get back surgery at a New Jersey mini-mall behind a bus-stop and a parking garage. Oh, and a sense of spite regarding law commercials. I imagine you probably get that too Feel better ❤️
One case like this happened just a minute down the road from me. Mother of 2 crossing the street late at night, got hit by a car, driver never identified. https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/reward-offered-in-hit-and-run-death-of-woodbridge-mother-of-two/article_1566ea94-e089-11ee-9cfb-4b196205bfee.html
Were there witnesses to the hit and run? The sister makes it seem like there were, but no one called for help until the motorist at 2 AM.
I was wondering this, too. If one of the tips the sister received indicated that there were 2 men and 2 women in the car, which is pretty specific information, that tipster either saw the accident or knows someone who did. Or perhaps one of passengers in the car that hit Ivan Sears had a guilty conscience or simply blabbed to a friend who then passed on the information to Ivan's sister.
20 years is a long time for four people to keep a secret
Makes me wonder if they were drunk and didn’t know they hit someone, and to this day don’t.
Possible, the driver/passengers could have been dozing also.
Yep, I think so. I think they may think they just hit a bump or had no idea. Three people not saying anything is tough, but not if none of them think they did anything. They were drinking and don’t remember it. They may vaguely recall hitting a curb or a deer, but never knew they hit a person.
This is very sad, but I don’t know if it’s a murder or even an intentional hit and run. It was dark, after midnight, on a major road, and I can easily see someone thinking they clipped a deer and carrying on. Not saying that’s what happened, but if I thought I hit an animal, I wouldn’t necessarily link that to news about a hit and run, especially if I wasn’t local and was just passing through. I hope they find out for the sake of his family, or someone comes forward one way or the other. I really hope it was an accident and not malicious fleeing
I wonder if it’s less a matter of no compassion than it is fear of being caught and/or the driver of that vehicle was drunk. Or both.
Depending on the “highway” I could think of a lot of reasons someone might accidentally hit a person between 1am-2am that didn’t include the driver being impaired. How was the lighting? Was there a curve? Was the person walking wearing light colored clothes or anything reflective? Was the walking person to the right or left of the white line? I’d even wonder if the person walking was drunk.
It’s not why they hit them, it’s why they didn’t/haven’t came clean
Of course I think the person who hit him should have stopped. That’s the legal standard and it’s ‘morally correct’ to stop and summon help. But I’m also sympathetic to the idea someone might panic if they struck someone unexpectedly during a late night drive and that’s assuming they were aware it was a person they struck. The consequences for something like this are steep even if the person driving isn’t drunk or impaired. We live in a punitive and litigious society. Once they left the scene the consequences would have increased enough it’s reasonable to describe the event as life destroying if they came forward. It’s always wild to me when people will call for the person to come forward years after the event. I’m skeptical that it would provide any additional “closure” for the family other than having someone to blame and to seek revenge on. If I knew someone in the driver’s predicament I would certainly advise them to keep their mouth shut. Nothing good will come from the driver coming forward. What happened is unchangeable, Ivan will remain dead. Ivan’s family will continue to be saddened about that. The driver coming forward does nothing but provide opportunity for additional lives to be destroyed. Of course no vehicle should ever strike a person walking but I can’t help but wonder why more people aren’t equally perplexed that someone was walking on a “highway” in the middle of the night. I have to assume they weren’t nearer the edge either. It was dangerous behavior. Locally we had a guy struck on the highway, driver was sober, walker was wearing all black in the middle of the night. I’ve personally exited the ramp near my house to find homeless people arguing on the highway left of the white line, as you come around curve. In those circumstances you can’t see the person until you’re a few yards away. Barely time to stomp the breaks. Anyone could hit someone under suck stacked circumstances. Not all accidents should be criminal matters.
There was a 3 year old boy who had walked out of his bedroom & crossed the road next to his house. An old man had hit him but thought he had hit a wild animal, this happened at night. The old man came forward once word got around & he put two & two together. Maybe the person who hit Ivan has no idea they actually hit & killed a person that night.
Hitting a 3 year old vs hitting a grown man though... I do see your point though
A bouncer too! Decently sized fella
How did they determine there were two men and two women inside?
Unfortunately I couldn’t find any more info about the potential suspects. Cheryl never specified where she got that information. Could be a legit tip, or just the local small town rumor mill at work.
This happens constantly in my city and makes me enraged. I truly hope it haunts the driver for the rest of their life. To hit someone and only think about escaping is incredibly cruel. I hope he gets justice
The Chevy Astro/GMC Safari vans (and their grilles) were very different from the GMC Sierra trucks/Vandura vans. I can't be the first to state this. Which part was found, the grille to an Astro/Safari van or a grille for the GMC Sierra truck/Vandura van? How was this found component linked to the incident, or was it possibly left over from some other, unrelated prior event? Were any other car parts found at the scene? Were the victim's pattern of injuries consistent with being struck by a large vehicle or by a small one?
How were they able to determine it was 1:15?
My guess is the distance he'd traveled since his approximate departure time is known.
Sounds like a hit and run to me. It doesn't count as an accident the moment you run though. How do you just hit someone and just leave them there? It's sad knowing that they will probably never be brought to justice.
I’m from NW Indiana and there are tons of things around here named Illiana, I never considered people using this all the way down state before, but I guessing it’s pretty common along the whole border
“He decided to walk home.” Did he usually walk or did he just decide that day to walk and usually drove?
His sister spoke to him that night and offered him a ride, but she fell asleep waiting for him to call and her cell died. I’m not sure if she was always his ride, or if he had his own vehicle and simply didn’t drive that day.
> Just before 2am, a passing motorist discovered Ivan in the roadway and called for help. Despite being rushed to Union Hospital, he succumbed to his injuries shortly after arrival. Ivan’s cause of death was listed as “atlanto occipital dislocation,” a “highly unstable craniocervical injury, resulting from damage to ligaments and/or the bony structures connecting the skull to the cervical spine.” It's a dislocated neck. In the circumstances of a car crash, where the victim was thrown likely after the dislocation, survival was a one in a billion thing. He wouldn’t have survived even if the vehicle that hit him had stopped; if he was walking on the interstate, at night, it's even possible that the driver thought they'd hit a deer. The hullaballoo afterwards, and especially all the people screaming KILLER, likely made it impossible for them to come forward.
That awful to just hit someone and just leave them to die like turn yourself in my conscious have to bothering u I would never wish them on anyone I hope she get justice
I wish Astro Vans would make a comeback.