Brier woman, 20, arrested in Edmonds hit-and-run

EDMONDS — A 20-year-old Brier woman reportedly has admitted to a hit-and-run crash in Edmonds earlier this month.

The victim, an 88-year-old woman, was struck April 4 while crossing Highway 99 outside of a crosswalk. She had broken bones and injuries that caused her brain to bleed. She has since been released from Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The suspect was arrested and booked last week for investigation of felony hit-and-run. She also has been released.

The crash happened just after 5:30 p.m. near the highway’s intersection with 228th Street SW. A witness caught six out of seven digits on the license plate of the fleeing vehicle. The witness said the driver “did not make any attempt to stop.”

Detectives recovered surveillance footage that showed the crash. “The brake lights never illuminated on the suspect vehicle,” they wrote in court papers.

With the video footage and the partial license plate, police were able to identify the vehicle, a Volkswagen Passat. They paid a visit to the registered owner, who lives east of Snohomish. The man said his stepdaughter is the only person who drives the car and she had traded it in at a dealership April 9, five days after the crash.

The Volkswagen was still at the dealership. It had damage consistent with the crash, and human hairs were found in the area of the damage, according to court papers.

When questioned, the stepdaughter provided proof she was on vacation when the pedestrian was struck.

When she was gone, though, her son and his girlfriend had permission to drive the vehicle, she said. The girlfriend, 20, of Brier, matched the witnesses’ description of the driver.

The suspect April 11 declined to speak with the investigators. She reportedly told her boyfriend’s mother that the pedestrian “came out of nowhere and she was so scared after she hit the person that she did not stop and kept driving,” police wrote.

Rikki King: 425-339-3449; rking@heraldnet.com.