'They took somebody from our family'; Hit-and-run drivers are often never caught

A hit-and-run crash occurs every 43 seconds in the United States. Some cases result in property damage, but others result in deaths, followed by lengthy investigations that usually come up dry.

Solve rates for hit-and-run crashes are dismal. A 2021 report from Flock Safety, a company that makes license plate readers, reported that only 10 percent of cases nationally are solved. A recent Los Angeles Daily News report put the number in that city at 8 percent.

The reason? These cases are extremely difficult to solve. Most accidents happen after dark, have few if any witnesses, and are only rarely caught on video. Sometimes all investigators have to go on is a paint chip or a mirror from the offending vehicle.

For families of survivors, the wait for justice can be excruciating.

'That's all I can really do is hope'

Eight months after his adopted father, Michael Berry, was killed while kneeling at a memorial on the side of State Road 415 in Osteen, Heath Mabey, 19, of Sanford, is waiting and hoping to hear that the hit-and-run driver has been caught.

"That's all I can really do is hope," said Mabey kneeling down by his father's memorial at State Road 415 and Parkinson Boulevard in Osteen recently.

Mabey said Berry came into his life when he was 9 years old and when he needed a father figure the most. And in the last 10 years, Berry taught him to be a better person. He misses the activities they did as a family.

"He taught me to be respectful, and I am a better person," Mabey said.

Kendra Cassidy said Berry's death has left her sister, Xaviera with a broken heart. Xaviera and Berry were planning a beach wedding and they both were very happy about it, she said.

"It's broken and shattered, and she has her moments where you see the clarity that was Xaviera, but then there's moments where she's just a shell of herself," said a teary Kendra Cassidy, standing next to the roadside memorial.

And waiting for authorities to catch the killer is also exhausting, Kendra Cassidy said, getting emotional on realizing that Berry was not around for his Nov. 30 birthday.

"Waiting is hard, and it's heartbreaking to know that there's somebody out there who's not taking accountability for their actions," she said. "They took somebody from our family."

Four hit-and-runs, no arrests

According to Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, from 2018 through 2022, 515,957 hit-and-run crashes resulted in 1,251 fatalities. That, on average, is 103,191 hit-and-run crashes resulting in 250 deaths per year in the state. Florida recorded 104,895 hit-and-run crashes and 266 fatalities in 2022. In 2023, in Volusia County, there have been four hit-and-run deaths.

The News-Journal has spent months tracking fatal hit-and-run crashes with no arrests, focusing on four in particular.

Berry, Clinton Stuart Welch, Michael Anthony Roscoe and John Michael Griffith, all died on Volusia highways and their killers may never be found.

FHP Trooper Migdalisis Garcia said the investigations into the incidents have been completed but the traffic homicide cases remain open though investigators have no leads on suspects.

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Roscoe, of Deltona, was riding his motorcycle north on State Road 415 at 2:38 a.m. on Oct. 23, 2021, when he lost control, landing in the roadway. Two unknown vehicles ran him over. A good Samaritan passerby then pulled him off the road, but it was too late.

Then on April 12, 2023, Roscoe's best friend, Berry, of Sanford, was visiting Roscoe's memorial in the median of State Road 415. He was kneeling, talking to his friend when an unknown vehicle ran off the road around 9:30 p.m., hit Berry, and disappeared into the night.

Berry had just sold his motorcycle and visited Roscoe's memorial to tell him because riding motorcycles was what the best friends enjoyed, said Kendra Cassidy, Berry's sister-in-law.

Berry and Xaviera Cassidy, had been planning a beach wedding, a dream that ended that April night on a dark, lonely stretch of road in Osteen, Cassidy said.

Not far from where Roscoe and Berry died, Welch, of Osteen, was hit while walking on Lemon Bluff Road on May 22, 2022. The driver of the vehicle fled, leaving Welch to die on the dirt road. Later, another motorist traveling on Lemon Bluff Road at 3:45 a.m. saw a backpack in the dark road, swerved to avoid it, and struck Welch, troopers said.

Riding a bicycle on a dark strip of U.S. 92 proved fatal for Griffith, of Daytona Beach, on Sept. 11, 2022. Troopers said that around 9:29 p.m., Griffith was riding his bicycle on the right shoulder of U.S. 92 westbound near Daytona Beach when a Jeep Wrangler, also traveling west, drifted off the road and struck Griffith from behind pitching him into the air at the intersection of 4th Street.

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Lack of evidence equals unsolvable cases

Florida Highway Patrol Traffic Homicide Investigator Cpl. Albert Pratts is a 23-year veteran trooper and has been investigating traffic homicide cases for 20 years. He currently works Volusia County and Seminole County cases.

Pratts said he doesn't know if anyone will ever be charged with the deaths of Welch, Roscoe, Berry, and Griffith.

To make investigators' work even more difficult, the hit-and-run crashes occurred in dark areas, making it difficult for witnesses to see the vehicles or for nearby security cameras to capture the incidents, Pratts said.

In the cases of Berry and Roscoe, it was too dark on State Road 415 for nearby cameras to capture any activity.

"We looked at the bar that is across the street, the cameras did not see anything, it did not record that far out," Pratts said. "We looked at the fire department that is just down the street from the scene, the cameras did not record out there."

In Griffith's case, a piece of evidence was found. Crime analysts at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement lab determined the vehicle that hit and killed Griffith was a Jeep Wrangler, manufactured somewhere between 2007 and 2016.

Although there potentially is a suspect vehicle in the case involving Griffith, troopers have been unable to find it.

"We looked all over Volusia County for the Jeep Wrangler identified by the part but we have not found it," Pratts said. "We don't know, but that Jeep Wrangler is possibly gone from Volusia County, and is probably from out of state."

Hit-and-run drivers flee, long investigations follow

Pratts said he understands how Mabey and his aunt Kendra Cassidy, and all other families of victims of hit-and-runs feel. Hit-and-run crashes that kill people may seem to drag on, but that doesn't mean homicide investigators are not working the cases.

Most investigators use a crime lab at FDLE to analyze evidence, and there is a backlog, Pratts said.

"So, it takes a long time to get processed and that's where it's frustrating, not only for the family and the victim, but it's frustrating for us traffic homicide investigators because our hands are tied," Pratts explained. "So we're looking at let's say maybe months to get an answer on a paint chip analysis, but right now it's between three months to a year to get anything back from FDLE."

Sometimes families may feel like FHP investigators may be ignoring their case but investigators have to guard whatever little information they have so that whenever they conclude their investigations, they can give the families good news and some closure with the arrest of a suspect, said FHP Lt. Tara Crescenzi.

"Sometimes our investigators are going to find evidence or they are looking for certain evidence and we might not always want the public to know that because the suspect could also be watching the news," Crescenzi said. "We don't want them to potentially get rid of that piece of evidence before we are able to either apprehend the defendant or get that evidence and submit it for processing."

Keeping vital information private during an investigation is crucial in making sure a case can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in court.

"Our homicide investigators, they take these cases seriously, they talk to these families monthly or even maybe sometimes more than that or less than that, but either way they don't consider it a cold case, meaning it's sitting in their drawer and is not being looked at," she said. "They are constantly evaluating it, reviewing it and looking for evidence, and that's why it's so important that if the public knows anything about any case, not just fatal hit-and-runs, hit-and-runs in general, please contact FHP."

Some cases get solved

In Volusia County, most cases where physical evidence or strong witness statements are obtained, have been solved. Pratts mentioned three cases where evidence has helped investigators make arrests. The most notable was when three young friends were killed, including a well-known TikTok influencer, by a wrong-way driver.

Pratts has also submitted evidence and charges to the State Attorney's Office in two Volusia County hit-and-run cases and expects arrests to be made soon. The first is about Arnulfo Jaramillo Sanchez, of DeLand, who was hit and killed on July 23, at 9:37 a.m. on East Voorhis Avenue near DeLand.

The second case is where a Nissan Sentra struck and killed Zechariah Blake Phillips, of Flagler Beach, who was walking on U.S. 92 on Aug. 16, 2022, at 5:33 a.m.

Drivers who leave the scene of a crash often run because they are drunk, have a suspended license, or no license at all, or have arrest warrants.

Despite the challenges, Pratts said, "... we need to solve them, we need to bring closure for the families and victims."

And he knows he needs the public's help to break these cases.

"Unless somebody could come forward and say this was the vehicle or this was the driver that killed that pedestrian at that time, it's not much we could do," Pratts said.

Crescenzi agrees.

"That's why it's so important that if the public knows anything about any case, not just fatal hit-and-runs, hit-and-runs in general, please contact FHP or you can notify Crimeline," Crescenzi said. "By being able to give that information to our investigators so they can provide justice to these families."

Any information which leads to a felony arrest carries a $5,000 reward, Crescenzi said,

Anyone with information on any of these cases is asked to contact FHP at *347 or CRIMELINE at 800-423-TIPS (8477).

This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: Why are hit-and-run killings so difficult to solve?