Mother seeks information in son’s hit-skip crash death
Police: 40-year-old was struck in West Side alley
Lisa Coldiron wants to know why. Why was it that her oldest son, 40year-old Jeremy Coldiron, was in a West Side alley around midnight on Oct. 12? Why did someone hit him with a car and then why did that person drive away without calling 911 for help?
“There’s like 5 million unanswered questions that we have absolutely no idea about,” Coldiron said. “We’re just trying to get through a day.”
Police said Jeremy of the Southeast Side was walking in an alley behind the 1300 block of Sullivant Avenue near Dana Avenue when he was struck by a vehicle. A passerby called 911 around 1:40 a.m., which investigators believe was likely more than an hour and a half after Jeremy was initially struck.
“They’re a coward for not stopping to see if he needed help, not even calling anonymously and saying we think someone got hit by a car or something and send help,” Coldiron said. “Who knows? Maybe he could have been saved when he first got hit, if they would have gotten there soon enough. You just don’t know.”
Jeremy, a devout Cleveland Browns fan who hated the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, was sweet and kindhearted as a son, his mother said. He also left behind two sons of his own, ages 11 and 5, who now have to grow up without their father.
“We’re truly grateful we have wonderful grandsons that we’ll be able to love and take care of,” Coldiron said.
But those grandsons won’t entirely fill the hole that has been left after burying her own child.
Coldiron said her family has heard rumors that Jeremy was struck intentionally and may have been assaulted beforehand. The final autopsy report
has not been completed by the Franklin County coroner’s office and Coldiron said it is “agony” waiting for more definitive answers about what happened in that alley.
Police believe the vehicle that struck Jeremy was a black or dark-colored SUV. They also believe another, smaller vehicle, also dark-colored, pulled into the alley at some point and saw Jeremy lying on the ground before driving away – again without calling for help.
“Nobody is coming forward,” she said. “If it was an accident, it was an ac
cident. You know if you hit a person, I think. I mean, you know when you hit a small animal, so I’d think you’d know if you hit someone.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at 614461-TIPS, submit a tip online at www.stopcrime.org or use the free P3 Tips mobile application. All tips to Crime Stoppers are anonymous.
Information can also be provided to Columbus police at 614-645-4545. bbruner@dispatch.com @bethany_bruner