Mom pleads for information in Ross Twp. hit and run that injured son

Ross Twp. Police Chief Darryl Haussler said officers are continuing investigate a Sept. 30 crash that injured 14-year-old Alex McCulley while he and two friends were crossing Wade Mill Road in the downtown area.

It was dark at 8:30 p.m. when McCulley crossed near the Marathon gas station. His friends crossed the street first and only heard the crash, according to Haussler.

Investigators say they believe the car involved was a 2002 to 2011 model a Crown Victoria or a Lincoln Town Car.

“I have no doubt they knew they had hit a person,” Haussler said.

The chief said anyone with information about the accident or who might have seen anything before or after the crash is asked to call the police department during regular business hours at 513-863-2337. After hours, call Butler County dispatch at 513-785-1300.

INITIAL REPORT:

At 8:30 p.m. Sept. 30, 14-year-old Alex McCulley was crossing Wade Mill Road in Ross Twp. with three of his friends when a car struck him.

The force of the impact snapped a rearview mirror off the car, but left Alex in far worse condition: a shattered femur, a fractured foot and internal injuries so severe that he spent the next 10 days in a hospital bed at Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center.

On Monday night, his mother, Amanda Wortham, still wasn’t sure when her son — swaddled in bandages and casts and fitted with a neck brace — would be ready to return home.

"If it was an accident, accidents happen, but (the driver) should've stopped to make sure my son was alive," Wortham told our news partner WCPO 9 On Your Side. "You should've stopped to make sure he was not dead on the side of the road."

Doctors told Wortham that McCulley may not walk on his own again for months, she said.

“Every day we get a step forward, but then it feels like we fall a step back,” she said. “He’s upset — he’s hurt, he’s angry, he feels that he’s in this hospital and whoever hit him is living their normal life.”

The only clue left at the scene was a broken-off sideview mirror belonging to a black recent-model Ford Lincoln or Crown Victoria.

“If you’ve heard any details, if you’ve heard anyone say anything, if you’ve seen a car fitting that description with a missing black mirror, please call the Ross Twp. police,” Wortham said. “Please.”

This article contains reporting from our news partner WCPO 9 On Your Side.