Family wants answers
Woman’s body was found on I-95 after date Thursday night
On Thursday night, Jennifer Amy St. Clair joined a man she met online for a first date, a motorcycle ride with two other couples to a bar in downtown Delray Beach.
Early Friday morning, her body — run over multiple times — was found on Interstate 95 in Pompano Beach.
It’s still not known how she ended up on the highway. If she perhaps fell from a motorcycle, or died from being hit by cars on the highway, her grieving family wants to know.
So does the Florida Highway Patrol, which is in the beginning of its investigation. It has shared few details other than that three vehicles made contact with St. Clair’s body.
“Part of the FHP investigation is to interview all of the 911 callers and look for surveillance video,” FHP Lt. Alvaro Feola said Tuesday.
St. Clair, 33, who worked as a server in restaurants, lived in Fort Lauderdale with her parents.
The final hours of her life were described Tuesday by her family’s attorney and an aunt.
“We are actively asking for the public to please help us find out any information that we can, relative to the terrible events that took place on Thursday night and into Friday morning,” said lawyer Todd Falzone of Kelley Uustal. “The family has very limited information.
“As you can imagine, the loss of a child is perhaps the worst loss ever that a parent can suffer and to lose a child in a situation where you don’t even know why or what happened makes it even worse,” Falzone said.
One of the drivers involved in the crash was stunned by what he witnessed in the southbound lanes of the interstate, north of Atlantic Boulevard.
“Laying across the road was what looked to be a body, and I couldn’t react in time and I ran it over,” said the driver, who spoke in front of a news camera but didn’t give his name. “I came to a stop as
fast as I could.”
He said he called 911 and talked with a motorcyclist who was parked in the emergency lane.
“I opened the door and asked, ‘Was that a person laying in the road?’” he said. “And he said, ‘Yes, she’s dead.’”
He said the motorcyclist rode off.
“As I was waiting, other traffic came along and ran her over again and again, and no one stopped,” the witness said. “Only three people stopped. And I can’t believe people can run over a body in the road and not stop.”
St. Clair, her date, his cousin and his date and another couple left her Fort Lauderdale home on their bikes about 10 p.m., according to the lawyer.
“The next thing the family learned is that she hadn’t come home and the FHP notified them of this terrible accident,” Falzone said.
What he says his law firm’s investigation has found so far is that the three couples went to a Delray Beach restaurant or bar that he wouldn’t name. He also would not identify St. Clair’s date, saying his name had not yet been confirmed.
“We know and we are confident there are many people out in the public who know about this event, who have information about this event, who saw them out there that night, who saw what happened on I-95 that evening,” Falzone said.
St. Clair was named for her aunt Amy Gamber, who called her niece a “very light-hearted” young woman who was “lovable.”
“She was surrounded by a big family who loves her so much,” Gamber said. “We’re still trying to process all of this.”
The Florida Highway Patrol has not yet said how St. Clair died.
Whatever the cause of St. Clair’s death, Gamber said, “It sounds like my niece was left there. She didn’t deserve that, by any means.”
St. Clair was born in New Jersey and moved to Florida as a child. She attended Piper High School in Sunrise, and is survived by two adult siblings and her mother, Becky St. Clair, stepfather Robert Burns and father Jack St. Clair, Falzone said.
Until recently, Cortney Dorsainrre of Pompano Beach waited tables with St. Clair at Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant in Coconut Creek. At 10 p.m. Wednesday, an hourlong candlelight ceremony is planned for the staff to remember their friend, who loved dogs and left a positive impression on everyone she met.
St. Clair’s family and friends are invited, Dorsainrre said.
“Anyone she spoke to, she could speak to them for five minutes and she’d have an impact on your life,” Dorsainrre said. “She could make everybody laugh. She told random silly jokes all the time, and had a great sense of humor. I think that’s what we remember most about her.”
Dorsainrre said after learning of St. Clair’s death, the restaurant crew was “walking around with puffy eyes. But we told each other Jenn wouldn’t want us crying. She’d want us laughing.”
On Saturday, a celebration of St. Clair’s life will be held at Scarano Funeral Home, 6300 Stirling Road, Davie. The service, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., will be open to the public.
Falzone asked anyone who wants to share information with the law firm to call 954-587-8423.
The Florida Highway Patrol asks anyone with knowledge of the incident to call Broward County Crime Stoppers, at 954-493-8477. That organization accepts anonymous tips and pays up to $3,000 for information that leads to an arrest.