Reward increased to $9K in fatal hit-run
FORT LAUDERDALE – A little more than a month after the hitand-run crash that killed a man in downtown Fort Lauderdale, the reward fund to help solve the case has increased by $6,000.
Broward Crime Stoppers Tuesday announced that family members and friends of John Frederick III added the additional money to the standard total of up to $3,000 the organization offers for tips leading to an arrest.
Frederick, 35, was hit by a car about 3 a.m. on Oct. 26 while crossing Broward Boulevard and Northwest Seventh Avenue. Investigators think he was struck by a silver 2011 to 2019 Hyundai Sonata that would have front-end damage.
Frederick is a cousin of singer and entertainer Nicole Scherzinger, who performed with The Pussycat Dolls, among others, and is a current judge on the second season of the Fox show “The Masked Singer.”
In a posting on Instagram shortly after the death of the cousin she and family members called “John Boy,” Scherzinger wrote, “It’s like a nightmare, that we will never be able to wake from.”
During a telephone interview in early November with WSVN-Ch. 7, Scherzinger said she was willing to help increase the Crime Stoppers reward in the hopes of finding the driver who fled the scene after hitting her cousin.
“Look, I’m sure it was an accident but it’s just inhumane, it’s just not right,” she told the station.
Two friends of Frederick, one from Fort Lauderdale and the other from Brooklyn, New York, have started a GoFundMe page to assist his family member with expenses. As of Wednesday, the page has raised more than $30,000 and contains dozens of tributes to Frederick.
Frederick’s sister, Jillian, who lives in South Florida, used her Facebook page to plead for people to come forward if they have any information about the driver who struck her brother.
“He was my rock and one of the greats,” she wrote.
Investigators urge anyone with information about the hit-and-run fatality to contact the Traffic Homicide Unit of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department at 954-828-5754. Tips can also be given, anonymously, to Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-8477 or online at browardcrimestoppers.org.