The family of a 19-year-old hit and killed while walking on Interstate 95 last week is looking for answers after they said the circumstances surrounding his death don’t add up.
The 19-year-old was identified as Tirrell Wiley. His family said he had Down syndrome and loved to dance and go to school.
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News4JAX spoke with Wiley’s mother, Terrellyn Simmons, who said her son was found after being hit by a car on I-95 near Clark Road — about two and a half miles south of their Northside home.
Related: 19-year-old dies after being struck by SUV while walking on I-95: FHP
Simmons and her husband, Harrison Simmons, said it is unlikely Tirrell wandered to the interstate on his own.
“He wasn’t just a 19-year-old adult, you know, walking on the highway,” Terrellyn Simmons said. “It’s just more to it than that.”
She said Tirrell was like a five to seven-year-old and mostly non-verbal.
“He just wanted hugs and wanted to laugh and dance,” she said.
She said the last time she saw Tirrell was around 9:30 p.m. on Thursday. She said he wasn’t in the living area when she emerged after changing out of her work clothes, and that she assumed he was hanging out in his older brother’s room. But when it was time to get him ready for bed, around 11 p.m., he wasn’t there. After searching the apartment and nearby area, they called the police.
“About an hour later, Florida Highway Patrol came and told me what happened,” Simmons said.
According to an incident report provided by Florida Highway Patrol, Tirrell was killed after being hit by a car on I-95 around 12:30 a.m.
“My whole concern about this whole thing is, Tirrell on foot couldn’t have made it past Harts Road without his feet hurting,” Simmons said.
Harts Road is located just a few doors down from their Northside apartment complex, so his loved ones don’t see why he would be walking north on the inside lane of I-95 if he had walked there almost two miles from the opposite direction.
“He always had swollen feet,” Harrison Simmons, Tirrell’s stepfather, said. “He suffered from gout… so just impossible,” Terrellyn Simmons said.
The family said he had only wandered away one other time when they lived in Atlanta and he was a young boy.
They said he knew not to cross the street and that he hated the dark.
“My feeling is that somebody picked him up and dropped him off on that highway, and I want to know who did it,” Simmons said.
They said they are grateful that the driver who hit him pulled over and was there with him when he died. The report said he was walking in the roadway and the driver was unable to swerve in time.
Simmons forwarded News4JAX an email showing Florida Highway Patrol is looking for video to see if there’s evidence he got into a car.
FHP said the crash is still under investigation.
A GoFundMe has been set up for the family to pay for funeral and other expenses.