JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Eight years ago Wednesday, a 21-year old Jacksonville woman died after being hit by a hit-and-run driver. The case has never been solved.
Dana Solomon died after fighting for her life for a week in an intensive care unit. She was hit walking home from a convenience store on Normandy Boulevard near Yellow Water Road on the Westside.
Solomon was walking with traffic where there's no sidewalk and wearing dark clothes when detectives believe a small, dark or metallic truck hit her and kept going.
Nine-year-old Landon Solomon has spent every holiday for the last eight years at his mother's gravesite.
"To know his mom, my daughter won't ever be there, won't see him grow up, won't get to see the things that I got to see when she was growing up. It's hard," said Terry Speights, Dana Solomon's mother.
It was Sunday, Nov. 12, 2006, just before 7 p.m.
Dana Solomon was walking home from a Kangaroo Express when she was hit by a vehicle that kept going.
"It was a week before Thanksgiving, so Thanksgiving's not a good time for us; all those bad memories," Speights said.
Solomon was flown to UF Health Jacksonville, formerly Shands, and put in a medically induced coma, where her organs failed.
"They'd call us into the room where she'd be flatlining," Speights said. "It was like an hour of ups and downs, and then finally she passed."
Eight years later, the case has gone cold, but time hasn't numbed her family's pain -- a dad dearly missing his daughter's daily phone call, a son wishing he could spend the holidays in his mother's arms, and a mom still begging for answers.
"We're hoping this year will be the last year I have to do this, to plead for somebody to come forward, just give us some closure," Speights said.
Solomon's family said she was a funny person, always happy and late for everything. But she would do anything for anyone and loved her son more than anything.
Speights said she's glad there are now stricter punishments for hit-and-run drivers. She said drivers are getting too careless with texting and driving and drinking and driving, and she asks violators to please stop, because when they accidentally hit somebody, they have no idea how severely it's going to affect that person's family.
Anyone with any information on Solomon's case is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS. Callers can remain anonymous.