Suspect vehicle description released in hit-and-run that killed Bluffton teen

Though the driver of a hit-and-run crash that claimed the life of a Bluffton teenager on Saturday in Calhoun County remains at large, the S.C. Highway Patrol is closer to finding the offender after a vehicle description was released Monday afternoon.

The patrol is asking anyone with information about a white Dodge Ram 2500 Crew Cab pickup truck believed to have damage on the right front bumper and fender area to call 843-953-6010 or Crime Stoppers at 1-888-CrimeSC.

The truck is believed to have struck a Nissan Rogue driven by Andrea Dewey as she drove her daughter Emma and her friend Grace Sulak home from a track meet in Columbia. The Rogue ran off the highway and struck a tree. Sulak was killed and both Deweys badly injured.

Little is known about how the wreck happened since the investigation remains ongoing, Sgt. Bob Beres of the Troop 7 branch of the patrol said Monday.

Lance Cpl. Matthew Southern of the Troop 6 branch of the patrol said hit-and-run cases are investigated by the patrol’s Multidisciplinary Action Investigation team.

MAIT investigators gather physical evidence at the scene of the crash including parts of both vehicles that may have broken or fallen off. Southern said those parts can help investigators determine the make and model of the vehicle.

The crash that claimed Sulak’s life was followed by another hit-and-run reported in Burton the same day.

A mother and her infant child were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injures after a hit-and-run collision just before 11 p.m. at the intersection of Trask Parkway and Bruce K. Smalls Road, according to a Burton Fire District news release.

Firefighters found the woman and her child inside a heavily damaged vehicle, but the other driver involved had fled the scene.

This story was originally published May 9, 2016 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Suspect vehicle description released in hit-and-run that killed Bluffton teen."