VERNON, Fla. (WMBB) — Authorities are still looking for the man responsible for a fatal hit-and-run crash in Washington County. The crash happened last week.
The family of 65-year-old Mike Kirkland isn’t angry at the driver, but said they want closure.
“We just want someone to come forward,” Kirkland’s daughter Marion Wilson said. “We have no hard feelings.”
Kirkland was walking down Holmes Valley Road when he was hit and killed by a car. His family said he decided to go for a walk that night. Hours later Florida Highway Patrol knocked on his home to tell his wife the news.
“It’s hard to believe something like that” his wife Dawn Kirkland said.
Kirkland then called her daughter.
“I was asleep and my mom called,” Wilson said. “I screamed because I didn’t think it was true. I was scared, hurt.”
Mike and Dawn Kirkland celebrated their 45th wedding anniversary just three days before he died. Now she’s asking the motorist to come forward.
“I know that they’re scared,” Wilson said. “I can only imagine what they’re going through.”
FHP officials said they don’t know the make or model of the car. But Dawn said Mike lived a full life, spending his last day the best way he could.
“He went to church that morning,” Kirkland said. “He said he’d been at the altar, young people around him praying for him. And didn’t know what was going to happen.”
After church, she said he had lunch with congregates. Hours before his death, he unknowingly ate his favorite meal for the last time.
“The pastor’s wife makes coconut pie for him,” Kirkland said. “And he looks forward to it. Let’s put it like that.”
Now his family is left with questions they hope will someday be answered.
“We don’t know what happened,” Kirkland said. “We don’t know why things happened like it did, except we don’t know if they just didn’t see him.”
If you have any information about the hit-and-run, you can contact Florida Highway Patrol.
