ELYRIA, Ohio — After a mother of four was struck and killed by a vehicle over the weekend, neighbors are calling for accountability for the driver.
The crash happened Saturday evening near the 6700 block of West River Road South in Elyria.
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Neighbor Wanda Brooks made the discovery when she got home from work.
“I got out of the car and walked up to her and noticed it was a body… and I just called 911,” Brooks said.
Elyria Police, Fire and LifeCare Ambulance personnel responded and located the woman, who was later identified as 34-year-old Tiffany Kunc, police said. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Investigators said video from a neighbor showed Kunc getting hit by a vehicle, and the vehicle driving away. The suspected driver was later located and admitted to being in the area at the time of the crash, but said he thought he had hit a deer.
Brooks said she saw the neighbor's surveillance video from the time of the crash.
“Honestly, I don’t think that they thought that they could’ve hit a deer… Two cars ahead of him went around her," Brooks said.
Police do not suspect that drugs or alcohol were factors in the crash.
Gabrial McAuliff said he walks the same section of West River Road almost daily.
"I don’t really see people everyday. It’s usually just me walking. A lot of cars, sometimes it depends on the day, and they normally drive above the speed limit,” he said.
He said the word of Kunc's death makes safety top of mind.
“I feel like it could have been me,” he said.
In the days since the crash, Brooks has connected with Kunc's family, learning that she was a mother of four children under the age of 15.
"That’s so heartbreaking to me," Brooks said. "And I know how rough that is because I myself raised family members’ kids. It’s just traumatic."
With the family's blessing, Brooks has started a GoFundMe for Kunc's children, hoping to support them in any way she can.
“That’s somebody’s kid, somebody’s mother, somebody’s sister,” Brooks said.
She also hopes to see accountability.
“I hope they get the justice they deserve,” she said.
So far, the suspected driver has not been charged in the crash. Police said it is still under investigation, but when the investigation wraps up, they expect charges.
"The Elyria Police Detective Bureau will review all aspects of the investigation and evaluate the available evidence. Once that process is complete, we will submit our findings to the Prosecutor's Office and/or a Grand Jury to determine whether probable cause exists to file criminal charges," Elyria Police Chief James Welsh said in a statement.
