Ohio police are searching for two male suspects in connection with the tragic death of a 29-year-old woman, Alexa Stakely, who was thrown from her vehicle while trying to stop it from being stolen with her 6-year-old son sleeping inside.
Columbus police responded to an apartment complex around 1:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Upon arrival, they found Stakely lying in the roadway with traumatic injuries. She was pronounced dead at a hospital a few hours later.
Stakely, a single mother who works two jobs, had just finished her shift as a waitress and was picking up her son from the babysitter’s house. After carrying her sleeping son to her Honda SUV parked outside, she left the vehicle running while she returned to the door to retrieve one of the boy’s belongings. ABC News 6 reported.
“As she returned to her SUV, it began to pull out into the roadway,” police said in a news release. Stakely ran toward the vehicle but was struck and thrown onto the pavement. The SUV drove through the apartment complex before being abandoned nearby. Responding officers found the vehicle and recovered the sleeping child, unharmed. A GoFundMe campaign was created to help Stakely’s son.
Witnesses reported seeing two men running past Stakely as she lay in the driveway. They jumped a fence and disappeared into a neighboring apartment complex. Earlier that morning, a group of men had been caught on surveillance video looking at apartments in the Castenea Way area. When confronted, they ran deeper into the complex and disappeared from view. Two of the men matched the description of those seen at the complex where Stakely had picked up her son, police said.
Columbus police have not yet responded to a request for comment. Stakely, known as “Miss Alexa” to her students at Winchester Trail Elementary School, was a speech and language therapist who worked in the preschool program. The Canal Winchester Local School District, where she had worked for five years, remembered her as “a great mother who was incredibly dedicated to her son.”
“Alexa was passionate about children and speech and language therapy,” the district stated. “She was intelligent and compassionate, and cared deeply about helping children develop their ability to communicate. Ms. Stakely made a difference in the lives of the students and families she worked with and will be missed by many in our community and beyond.” While the community mourns her loss, law enforcement continues to search for the suspects responsible for this tragic event.