A 26-year-old man walking to McDonald’s was left for dead at an intersection after a hit-and-run near Flushing, Michigan. Thanks to the dogged detective work of Mount Morris Township Police, the suspect was tracked down and arrested in the parking lot of her employer, a local nursing home.
When Cheyenne White, 26, was taken into custody on June 14, she allegedly told police she didn’t stop or call authorities because she “didn’t think she hit him that hard.”
Sebastian Jacob Klein, who went by the name “Klein,” was discovered in the next day in the early morning of June 10 at the intersection of Elms Road and Kelly Road when a concerned citizen called 911.
When first responders arrived, Klein was still alive hours after being struck around 10:30 p.m. Though they immediately began providing emergency care, he ultimately died at the scene.
Police used a fingerprint scanner to identify him and informed his mother.
Local news stations reported on the mysterious death later that day, interviewing Klein’s father, Don Klein, and girlfriend, Mary Cross, who expressed shock that the driver didn’t stop and render any aid or even call 911.
“It just felt like the floor got ripped from underneath me like my life is, so it’s very changed now. It’ll be changed forever,” Cross told Mid-Michigan Now.
“It makes me angry. I wish they would just come forward,” she added.
With no suspects after the news broke, detectives turned to the scene of the crime for clues. They discovered a passenger-side mirror that they thought might be linked to the vehicle that fatally struck Klein, WNEM reported.
Investigators were able to confirm that the mirror came from a Chrysler through the manufacturer’s number. Armed with this information, detectives pulled security footage from businesses in the area and had a hit.
They spotted a Jeep, made by Chrysler, driving by the intersection a day after the accident and it was missing a passenger side mirror and had front fender damage. The color seemed to match the mirror found at the scene.
Police checked footage from the day before the accident and saw the same Jeep with no damage. They theorized that whoever drove the Jeep must regularly come to the area, and perhaps the intersection was on a work commute. Police jumped into action, combing the area for signs of the damaged Jeep, and spotted the vehicle in the parking lot of a nearby nursing home.
When police saw White leave her workplace and approach her vehicle, they confronted her, and she admitted to owning the Jeep. In police custody, she allegedly confessed to the hit-and-run, saying that she did not call 911 or try to help the pedestrian she had struck because she “didn’t think she hit him that hard.”
On June 14, White was charged with a felony crime: failure to stop at a scene resulting in serious impairment of death. Her next court appearance will be on June 27.
In the aftermath of the senseless tragedy, Klein’s friends and family are trying to cope with the grief. His dad told Mid-Michigan Now, “You don’t know that tomorrow is coming. So please. You have any any animosity, any argument, any disagreements with your family, whoever it may be, and call them hug them, kiss them. Love them.”
