NASCAR Driver Helps Publicize Joliet Woman's Hit-And-Run Death
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) -- It was a tragic hit and run that killed a young University of Illinois student from Joliet.
And three years later, there are no new clues into the death of 20-year-old Melissa Lech.
That's why the family is so grateful that a NASCAR driver is helping re-focus attention on the case, CBS 2's Roseanne Tellez reports.
LISTEN: WBBM Newsradio's Bernie Tafoya reports
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It was late one night in August 2008 when Maria Lech learned her daughter Melissa had been killed by a hit-and-run driver.
"How can you kill somebody and not stop -- just go away?" she asks. "That was a person, that wasn't an animal."
Her body was found along McDonough Road in Joliet, now the site of a shrine in her honor. Police say after an argument with a friend at a nearby restaurant, she decided to walk home.
For her mother, who also lost Melissa's dad to brain cancer just a few years earlier, the pain is still fresh. But the case is cold.
But this Saturday at Chicago Speedway, NASCAR driver Kevin Conway is stepping up to call attention to the case by carrying a giant picture of Melissa on his #87 race car.
This is the picture, which also has a number to call with tips. And a $25,000 reward for information is still good.
"We believe somebody out there … knows information in this case. It's just a matter of being honest and coming forward to give closure to the family," Joliet Police Detective John Ross says.
Thanks to Conway they'll have a new vehicle for circulating information.
"To us it means a lot," Melissa's sister, Michelle, said. "We don't stop thinking about it every day. It's harder and harder because we don't know what happened."
