Cops may have found the car involved in this sad hit-and-run case.
On Monday, Rita Chiero was using a walker to get around her gated senior living community when a vehicle hit her from behind, killing the 86-year-old grandmother. The driver fled the scene.
But on Wednesday, Davie police say that a vehicle and driver of interest may have been identified.
The vehicle is reportedly at the Davie Police Department for processing, and cops say the driver is cooperating with investigators. The details on what led authorities to this specific car and driver have not been released.
Chiero's body was discovered Monday morning on the road inside the Everglades Lakes mobile park complex, where she lived.
"I was prepared to see her go maybe because of a heart attack down the road," her son Joseph Chiero Jr., 50, told the Sun-Sentinel on Tuesday. "I was not prepared to see her be killed and be left like roadkill."
According to police, Rita Chiero was walking east in the westbound lane of SW 33rd Street when the vehicle struck her from behind. A neighbor heard the accident and came outside to find Chiero lying in the road.
Police said the driver had to have known a person had been hit.
Chiero's family and neighbors put up fliers around the neighborhood, hoping someone would come forward or give police any kind of information that would lead to the identity of the driver.
In recent years, Chiero had survived a heart attack and a stroke that left her in a coma for a time, according to her son. She kept an active lifestyle, going on daily walks and playing bingo at the community's clubhouse.
Chiero's granddaughter Angela was the last relative to see her alive before fire rescue rushed her to Broward Health Medical Center, where she was later pronounced dead.
"We believe her last words were 'Angela,'" Cheiro Jr. said. "She waited to see her granddaughter before she died."
Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or Davie Officer Ronnie Martin at 954-693-8200.
