HAVE YOU DRIVEN PAST A KILLER:
A TOWNSVILLE grandmother hit and left to die may have been killed by a professional truck driver.
It’s a theory police can’t discount, given the scarcity of information that has emerged following the hit and run death of 45- year- old Peggy Jean Jacobs on January 15, 2009.
Ms Jacobs’ body was found in a bus zone on Abbott St, Oonoonba, across from O’Donnell St, between 11pm and 11.40pm.
Despite an exhaustive investigation immediately after her death, no substantial leads have ever come to light to help police pinpoint the driver responsible.
Townsville Forensic Crash Unit officer in charge Sergeant Robert Nalder said the driver responsible would’ve known they’d been involved in a significant crash.
He said Abbott St had been notorious as a truck route from the Bruce Highway to the Port and investigators had given “fair consideration” to the prospect that a truck was involved in Ms Jacobs’ death.
He said it was “very disappointing” that no information had ever come out about her hit and run, even after a reward of $ 50,000 was of- fered for information and her family made heartbreaking pleas for public assistance.
In 2009, Abbott St was the main haulage route for trucks headed to Townsville Port.
The $ 217 million Southern Port Rd didn’t open to traffic until November 2012, when it was announced that more than 500 trucks a day would use the route, taking traffic off residential streets.
In 2008- 09 more than nine million tonnes of imported and exported cargo passed through the port, including cattle, cars, sugar, nickel and more.
Investigators discovered that Ms Jacobs had stepped on to Abbott St heading towards the train tracks and had made it to the inbound lanes when she was hit.
She was struck by a part of a vehicle or its payload around her chest and sternum.
The impact sent Ms Jacobs flying backwards and she hit her head on the road.
There were no tyre marks at the scene, a grim reminder of the lack of concern by the driver responsible.
In November 2016, police told the Townsville Bulletin they believed the driver responsible may have been a local and suspected they had been driving a truck, possibly a small truck or even a 4WD with a bullbar as the injuries weren’t consistent with being struck by a sedan.
Investigators even suggested Ms Jacobs’ death could have been an accident, but the driver had done wrong by driving away, leaving her to die alone on the roadside.
On September 1, 2012, a 20- yearold Ingham man was hit and killed on Abbott St, Oonoonba, just after 12.30am.
The vehicle which hit him failed to stop at the scene, but a 20- yearold Ayr woman was charged almost a year later in relation to his death.
Despite investigators’ best efforts, including forensic examinations of cars identified as possible vehicles of interest, Ms Jacobs’ death case remains open and unsolved.
Anyone with information about Ms Jacobs’ death should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.