Police searching for leads in Scottsdale hit-and-run driver case

This article originally appeared Dec. 12, 2016.

Nancy Bennett’s sister, Maureen Brown, lost a year of her life.

“She struggles every day.”

The long nightmare began on the evening of Sunday, Oct. 25, 2015.

Phoenix Police Sgt. Jamie Rothschild said Brown was in Scottsdale near 124th Street and Shea Boulevard when a car slammed into her as she was walking across the street.

“She had just come from shopping for a ring with her fiance,” Rothschild said. “The driver didn’t slow down — just took off from the scene.”

The vehicle is described as a black, four-door sedan that would have had damage to the front hood and windshield.

Bennett said Brown was in the ICU for weeks in a coma.

“The entire right side of her body was smashed. She has metal plates, rods and pins all up and down the right side of her body. She’s in constant pain.”

Brown had to postpone her wedding. She couldn’t drive for a year. She had to give up her job that she loved as an eighth grade science teacher at Cocopah Middle School for a year as well.

Her life is filled with doctor’s appointments and physical therapy and planning her wedding, now that she can. It’s the first dance that has her worried.

“Because she can’t really dance so she’s trying to figure-out how to do that,” Bennett said.

Described as a kind and helpful person, Brown was always active and loved horseback riding. All of that has been stripped away by the hit-and-run driver.

Read more about this case here.

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