Police Narrow Down Description Of Vehicle In Deadly Lake Zurich Crash
UPDATED 07/29/11 9:13 p.m.
LAKE ZURICH, Ill. (CBS) -- Police in Lake Zurich now have a description of the vehicle involved in a crash that left an 18-year-old girl dead last week.
Police Cmdr. Kevin Finlon says evidence left at the scene of the hit-and-run crash this past Friday night has led investigators either to a GMC Safari or a Chevrolet Astrovan.
Police say it is a a two-tone van, blue with a second lighter color, possibly silver or gray.
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Police have also released surveillance video of the van taken at a Shell gas station about three miles from the crash site.
The accident occurred around 9:15 p.m. that day in the 100 block of Church Street in Lake Zurich. It left Gabriella Drozdz, 18, dead.
The models could have possibly been made between 1985 and 1994, and police say the vehicle involved in the hit and run would have damage to the side turn signal and marker light.
As CBS 2's Kristyn Hartman reports, the development comes one week after her death, on the night of her wake.
Friends and loved ones brought lots of flowers and pictures to the place where Drozdz lost her life exactly one week ago.
Outside her wake, her friend Beccy Jones said, "It's a lot to think about. It's just, it's a big wakeup call about short life can be and how you should really live it to the fullest. And Gabby did that."
Drozdz, 18, died after the sport-utility vehicle hit her as she walked south on the shoulder of Church Street. She was on her way to the local Alpine Festival with two friends, both of whom suffered minor injuries in the accident.
One of them, Rosie Fitts, was still shaken over the weekend as she described her friend's last moments.
"I looked and see that Gabby, she's not moving. She has blood coming off her face. And I held her hand and I prayed and I told her, 'Gabby, I love you so much.' And I prayed to God she'd be OK," Fitts told reporters.
Drozdz never regained consciousness after she was hit but did not suffer, her stepbrother, Scott Grzelak, said. Paramedics who worked on the teen en route to the hospital, but she was pronounced dead, he said.
