CRESTVIEW — Authorities believe they have the car involved in an Oct. 21, 2015 hit-and-run, but that's not enough to charge the probable driver.
A 2004 silver Toyota hit Kelly Osmon as she walked up her front yard after an evening jog. The driver then backed up, continued in reverse and drove up Yellowhammer Drive, according to the Florida Highway patrol.
The car, located Nov. 18 in a wooded area about a half-mile from Osmon’s home, "had damage to the hood and windshield that was consistent with colliding with a pedestrian,” an FHP crash report states. “Furthermore, I observed long brown hair consistent with the victim’s hair in the broken glass of the windshield.”
The vehicle's owner has not been charged. “Because I did not see him — obviously because I was hit from behind — they can’t place him as the driver,” Osmon said.
According to the FHP report, when the probable driver was interviewed Oct. 22, he told a trooper “that he had loaned the vehicle to a person by the name of Ethan … He also stated that he did not personally know Ethan.”
The alleged driver is the son of family friends who took walks with Osmon’s mother, Sue Richards.
“It’s very, very hard, especially when they walked together for almost a month and sympathized with Sue, but they didn’t tell her he was their son," a neighbor and family friend said, requesting anonymity. "They’re both wonderful families. It’s amazing the things you do to protect your children. Things you normally would never do.”
Osmon said her only recourse to recoup expenses from mounting medical bills will most likely be through civil legal action. “Basically, there’s nothing they can really do because they can’t put him behind the wheel,” Osmon said. “Everything that (the FHP trooper) has is circumstantial."
That should raise concerns, Richards said.
“The mother told me it was an accident," she said. "She told another person her son hit Kelly.
"Now, because its ‘circumstantial,’ nothing can be done?”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview hit-and-run car found, but no charges filed