UPDATED: Elderly Woman Killed In Hit-And-Run On Her Birthday
Updated 09/18/11 - 10:33 p.m.
CHICAGO (STMW) -- On Margaret Heffernan's 82nd birthday Saturday, she and a friend headed to a beauty salon on the Northwest Side to get their hair cut.
As they crossed the 5700 block of West Lawrence at 11:51 a.m., her 78-year-old friend saw a dark-color pickup truck speeding toward them and tried to warn Heffernan to get out of the way.
But police said Heffernan couldn't walk fast enough and she was run over and later died. Her friend was injured. The pickup sped off.
"It makes no sense — it's a terrible thing,'' Jefferson Park Police Lt. John Lewison said of the hit-and-run.
The pickup fled east on Lawrence and was last seen turning north on Major, police said. The driver was described as a man in his 20s or 30s wearing dark clothing. Pieces of plastic truck molding were found at the scene.
The two women were taken in serious condition to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge . Heffernan was pronounced dead at the hospital at 12:26 p.m., the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said. Her friend was in critical condition late Saturday, police said.
An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday.
Heffernan was identified by the nuns who run St. Andrew Life Center, a retirement home where she lived for several years in north suburban Niles. "She was quiet," said Sister Malvina Gill, the support services director at St. Andrew, a religious home sponsored by the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth and the Sisters of the Resurrection. "She was a good person and a very good Catholic, and she attended Mass daily."
Police released surveillance photos of the pickup, described as a newer model black or dark blue four-door Ford F-150 with a spare tire on the rear passenger side. The pickup has tinted rear-windows and a silver ladder in its flatbed, police said. Police think it had an Illinois license plate with green numbers or letters on a white background. Anyone with information is asked to call (312) 745-4521.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2010. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
