Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Seeking answers in roadside tragedy

This is no way to die: Flat on the cement at 6 a.m., struck down by a motorist who leaves you bleeding from both ears near a dirt lot next to a dive bar.

All Dennis Scott was trying to do was ride his bike to work - a 10-minute pedal he pushed almost every morning.

In the creeping dawn of Dec. 8, however, Scott was hit by a car and abandoned at the intersection of Lamb Boulevard and Welter Avenue, near Sahara Avenue.

Scott's death is one of 18 fatal hit-and-run accidents and 160 traffic-related fatalities in Las Vegas this year. Scott's friends are furious and want to find out who did it. They're gripping witnesses' every word. They're posting desperate pleas on Internet message boards - Did anybody see anything that grim Friday morning?

The neon green spray paint police used to write "REST" in the black asphalt where Scott's body was flung is starting to fade. There have been no good leads. Nothing. Not a one.

"To hit somebody, have an accident and take off knowingly," James Canale said, focusing his eyes on some invisible distance. "That person, to me, doesn't have a soul."

Canale has known Scott since high school. He lied to hospital workers on the day of the accident; to get bedside visiting privileges, Canale said he was family. Scott, 44, was hidden behind emergency room curtains, swollen beyond recognition and brain-dead. His life support was cut in a matter of hours.

"I'm starting to get angry," Canale said, pitched forward and pulsing behind the eyes. "Somebody knows what happened."

There are so many hit-and-run accidents in Las Vegas every year that Metro Police have a special hit-and-run detail to deal with the crime. Metro investigates between 300 and 400 hit-and-run accidents a month, said Detective Sean Lethbridge of the special detail, and that's only a portion of the hit-and-run accidents that occur.

Without witnesses or at least a partial license plate number, investigators typically won't take down a report. Without identifying information, finding a runaway driver is almost impossible.

"There's basically zero solvability," Lethbridge said.

The hit-and-run detail doesn't respond to accidents that occur on private property, such as a mall parking lot. And there are a fair number of hit-and-run accidents that are never reported: bumper-to-bumper encounters where neither party wants to inform their insurance company. If they have insurance, that is.

But if the accident is fatal, detectives can spend weeks investigating. Without witnesses, finding a hit-and-run driver is partly a feat of police work and partly a miracle.

Detective Dennis Magill is investigating Scott's death. The only evidence left at the scene was a dinged hubcap and some white paint chips.

They may as well have been magic beans.

"We've got no information. No nothing. Absolutely nothing," Magill said. "And my crystal ball doesn't work very well."

Scott was riding northbound on Lamb Boulevard when the only witness - a 12-year-old boy - saw a white SUV strike Scott from behind, knocking him off the bike and onto the asphalt.

The bike remained stuck under the SUV for several blocks; the tires left a trail of dragged-rubber road burns police followed into a residential neighborhood.

Then the trail disappeared.

Magill has two theories: 1) The driver got out and threw the bike into his trunk; 2) The driver got out and threw the bike over a fence. The bike has not been found.

Either way, the driver knew what he was doing. And what he wasn't.

But the witness never saw a license plate.

Scott's friends have set up a roadside memorial near the scene of the crime - a metal crucifix in a dirt lot.

Whoever hit Scott is supposed to see this.

"They can drive by every day and see that yes, he did pass away and yes, people do love him," friend Vicki Fromholz said.

At just past 6 a.m., whoever was behind the wheel could have been drunk, Magill said. Or, perhaps the runaway driver had a warrant out for his arrest, or an unregistered vehicle, or an inkling that two to 20 years in prison wouldn't be all that pleasant.

And even if the detective did find the driver, what then? Without a witness, how do you prove who was driving?

"It's a crapshoot," Magill said.

Scott had been living with Fromholz and her mother in a small house off Karen Avenue, a few minutes from the accident scene.

Fromholz and friend Sheila Ragland visit the makeshift memorial every day, sometimes several times a day.

Canale, Scott's high school friend, has only gone to the accident site once. He doesn't want to see it again.

"I can show you drag marks," Canale said.

Scott's heart and lungs were salvaged and donated. Scott's friends still half -expect him to come through the side door, as always. The construction worker left a project half-finished at Fromholz's house; the floor is ripped up and the kitchen is gutted.

Everyone is gutted.

"I don't want somebody to die for this. I don't want anybody to spend their life in prison, " Ragland said. "I just want, 'I'm sorry,' you know? Just something."

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