College student was hit by car and left to die, TN cops say. Months later, man arrested
The summer before her junior year of college, 20-year-old Ava Christopher was hit by a car going 88 mph and left to die, Tennessee police said.
Months later, a man accused in the hit-and-run is in custody.
Julio Hernandez, 19, was recently arrested after the Memphis Police Department said he ran a red light in July in a stolen Dodge Challenger and smashed into Christopher’s car.
Then, Hernandez and a female passenger got out of the car and fled on foot, police said in a Nov. 17 news release.
The Memphis man was charged with disregarding a red light, failure to exercise due care, violation of financial responsibility, leaving the scene of an accident involving death, no driver’s license, reckless driving and vehicular homicide — reckless, according to the release.
An arrest affidavit filed in Shelby County court said he was going more than double the 40 mph speed limit. Investigators said the Dodge Challenger was reported stolen out of Mississippi with the original rims missing.
For months, investigators searched for Hernandez, repeatedly asking the public for assistance, as Christopher’s family organized rallies and called on those with information to come forward.
As few leads trickled in, the reward for information was doubled to $20,000 in October.
“They didn’t just steal the car, they didn’t just wreck her car or someone else’s car,” Christopher’s mother, Angela Christopher, told WMC. “They stole everything. They stole her future, they stole her ability to finish college.”
Christopher studied biology at the University of Memphis with minors in vocal music and theater, her family shared in her obituary. After she graduated, she hoped to go to veterinarian school.
She was a performer who worked tirelessly at her craft, her family said, “while at the same time happily cheering on her friends and their horses.”
Christopher was also a member of the choir at the University of Memphis Rudi E. Scheidt School of Music, the school said. The school mourned her loss, calling her a “valued and cherished member of our UofM community,” in a Facebook post.
Her family described her as someone who made it her goal to get others to laugh or smile.
“She believed in acceptance, tolerance and love,” her family wrote in her obituary. “She packed more love, humor, knowledge, moxie and experiences into her short 20 years than many of us do in a much longer lifetime.”
Hernandez was arrested Nov. 16 during a traffic stop in a car that had the original rims from the Dodge Challenger he was accused of driving the night of the crash, Memphis police said.
In the affidavit, investigators said Hernandez told them he was driving the Dodge Challenger at the time of the July 25 crash.
Attorney information for Hernandez is not available in Shelby County records.
The passenger in the car has not been located, police said.
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