Found Deceased NC - Weston Vandermerwe, 23, Raleigh, 9 Aug 2013

[zelmajane]

May he rest in peace.

Prayers for his family and his girlfriend.

 

[ArianeEmory]

I just need to be emotional here, so bear with me. How could anyone hit a pedestrian and just keep going? What kind of human being would be so cruel??!

RIP Weston. My heart breaks for your mother, brothers and loved ones.

This makes me wonder--what is the basic cause of a hit and run in the first place, I mean the run part? Say I am a legal, insured, sober driver, and a drunk person staggers in front of my car suddenly on a fast moving highway, in a scenario where hitting him is unavoidable. How liable am I, legally? I've been told the driver is always at fault no matter what, but it's one of those things I've never looked up. I know for a fact I would call 911, not just because I have a conscience but because the guilt would make me insane. But the thought that I might go to jail for something I had no control over is scary.

Otherwise, I suppose the person could be DUI, or otherwise driving illegally.

 

[SyraKelly]

His poor family

RIP Weston

 

[elmomom]

This makes me wonder--what is the basic cause of a hit and run in the first place, I mean the run part? Say I am a legal, insured, sober driver, and a drunk person staggers in front of my car suddenly on a fast moving highway, in a scenario where hitting him is unavoidable. How liable am I, legally? I've been told the driver is always at fault no matter what, but it's one of those things I've never looked up. I know for a fact I would call 911, not just because I have a conscience but because the guilt would make me insane. But the thought that I might go to jail for something I had no control over is scary.

Otherwise, I suppose the person could be DUI, or otherwise driving illegally.

(Not stalking I promise!)
I think the chance of going to jail for hitting a drunk while you were driving sober is just about nil. However, your chance of being caught as a hit and run driver is fairly high, not to mention the likelihood you would go to jail for a hit and run...
So to me, the most likely idea is that hit and run driver must have been driving under the influence or doing something else illegal, or has a boat load of previous violations.
Pease excuse any typos, since the margins are blown, it is making the typeface on my ipad so small I can't read what I am typing!

 

[thorpedo]

This makes me wonder--what is the basic cause of a hit and run in the first place, I mean the run part? Say I am a legal, insured, sober driver, and a drunk person staggers in front of my car suddenly on a fast moving highway, in a scenario where hitting him is unavoidable. How liable am I, legally? I've been told the driver is always at fault no matter what, but it's one of those things I've never looked up. I know for a fact I would call 911, not just because I have a conscience but because the guilt would make me insane. But the thought that I might go to jail for something I had no control over is scary.

Otherwise, I suppose the person could be DUI, or otherwise driving illegally.

A friend of mine, travelling on business, had an intoxicated man walk in front of his truck on a Texas freeway. He landed in the bed of the truck and died. Needless to say my friend was totally freaked out. He called the police and was not charged with anything.

 

[Madeleine74]

There is no legal liability in the situation where someone causes themselves to be hit (i.e. drunk/staggering into traffic, running out into traffic, etc) as long as the driver of the vehicle is not otherwise impaired. But once a driver leaves the scene of an accident and doesn't report or stay around to speak to the authorities, big trouble!

 

[meanmaryjean]

It IS possible to hit someone and not realize it. We had a case here a couple years back- a guy with a big SUV hit a guy in the head with his side mirror and THOUGHT he ran over some debris in the road in the dark. The next morning, he saw the damage to his mirror, looked closer and realized it was blood. Called LE himself, absolutely distraught.

So sad about this guy......

 

[LivingJuicy]

Oh no. This makes me so sad. I follow so many cases here like all of you and we all want a happy ending. I probably should step away for a bit but I am consumed with wanting to help. Hugs to all of you. This kid had his whole life ahead of him. Makes me so appreciative of mine but still, life is sacred and unpredictable. Rip seer gorgeous Boy.

 

[zelmajane]

If you're around Raleigh, please help out pulling his missing signs down. I got maybe ten tonight on the way back from dinner. Hate for his friends to have to do it.

 

[borndem]

I want to say Raleigh IS pretty safe, even downtown, but I'm used to scary cities (read: Florida) and I live in the "other" (high crime) NC city. So my view of safe/unsafe may be skewed. I've never felt scared in downtown Raleigh, though, and I am a high-vigilance person. So I think he betook himself somewhere. But where?

Hiya, fellow NC-er! :seeya:

I had a bad feeling about this one as soon as I read it -- especially when his mom said that he would never have not done the things that he was planning to do with the new lease (was prolly excited about a new place) and going to work. <smh>

I just wonder what the chances are of this driver being found. That bothers me. If the driver is local, chances, I guess, are pretty good, but if the driver was just passing through Raleigh, well, I'm thinking that we'll never know and this will go unsolved/cold/dead.

This thing has really upset me somehow...

 

[masootz]

the indication that one or more groups of people saw him lying on the sidewalk certainly don't speak well for his state of mind. it's possible he was laying down and the driver didn't see him. there's also a higher probability that someone driving at 3:00am on a saturday morning is drunk. or maybe both.

 

[zelmajane]

the indication that one or more groups of people saw him lying on the sidewalk certainly don't speak well for his state of mind. it's possible he was laying down and the driver didn't see him. there's also a higher probability that someone driving at 3:00am on a saturday morning is drunk. or maybe both.

He was on the other side of the guard rail, which indicated he had to be up right to make it over unless someone moved him there.

I also wonder how long he had been there. Is it true that he was around Raleigh at a shelter like previously reported?

 

[borndem]

I've lived in Raleigh for many years -- I worked downtown (Fay. St.) for approx. 6, 7 years in the 80's. Later, I worked at the First Citizens Data Center on Hammond Rd/Tryon Rd. for 10+ years. I was a programmer, and that's where we worked.

Each work day, I would take I-40 (440) East (from near, but not in, Cary), and exit onto the Hammond Rd ramp, turn right, and continue down Hammond to Tryon. I would go back home via Hammond, take a left onto the I-40 ramp which merged with the Hammond Rd. entry ramp from downtown. So I drove past the area where the body was found every M--F for all those years.

I tried to trace a path from the Convention Center to the area where his body was found. It's not that easy, IMO, to wind up where his body was found... Did he just drunkenly wander around and some-the-he!!-how wind up there without being run over on his way?? It is not a direct path by any stretch of the imagination -- and at night, I guess. Did he sleep on the grass that night and then walk in that direction? Makes no sense to me. Did someone give him a lift to somewhere close to the site? Or, was he attacked somewhere between downtown and the site & dumped where the workers found his body?

I wish someone else familiar with the area would get on Google/whatever do the same thing -- trace a possible path(s) to the site -- and give comments.

IMO, this thing is odd.

 

[zelmajane]

borndem-

another thought on that path from the convention center to the highway, isn't it kind of rough between those two places? Talking about it with friends last night, someone said "I don't know how he would make it to where he was found without being robbed."

 

[Kaliste]

I'm so angry about the guys who saw him on the side of the road and did nothing but take a picture. You don't leave an impaired person on the side of the road...this was predictable and preventable. I've chased ducks off the side of the road before, picked up stray cats and dogs, even dragged a giant box to the other side of the rail so it wouldn't cause an accident.

If you see a person in distress ANYWHERE (and especially somewhere they could be hurt) call 911. How is that not common sense??

 

[borndem]

borndem-

another thought on that path from the convention center to the highway, isn't it kind of rough between those two places? Talking about it with friends last night, someone said "I don't know how he would make it to where he was found without being robbed."

Thanks for the comments, zelmajane! :seeya:

It's not a straight or obvious path at all. Of course if he did it that night and he was pretty drunk, I guess it would be possible, but he had a lot of streets to cross no matter how he went. If he fell asleep and walked it the next morning -- WHY? Why didn't he stay where those Shaw guys saw him and get a cab, or go somewhere & find a phone & call his parents or his girlfriend -- if he lost his cell phone or it was not working?

I ASSUME an autopsy will be done, or at least the ME would look him over, I would think. I hope so, anyway. I don't know, but maybe the ME would have enuff experience to be able to differentiate between being killed by a vehicle and being beaten to death. I'm sorry to say again that he may have been beaten (& robbed?), but something caused injuries bad enuff to kill him... Maybe being a WS'er makes me more suspicious than I should be, but I am skeptical.

Anyone else?

 

[ArianeEmory]

borndem, I've felt hinky about this ever since the sightings of him and the group taking pictures. I'm still skeptical that he walked from the bar all the way to where he was found.

 

[Island_Chica]

This case caught my eye as I am from NC and went to college at UNC-CH. Consequently, I've spent a lot of time in and around Raleigh.

A few things: 1. Until we know more, let's not give the Shaw U. students any blame for not calling the authorities. When I was in college, I'd call authorities/intervene only if a stranger was having a medical emergency or in imminent danger (woman passed out half naked in frat house, etc), especially if that person said no to my offers of help. Downtown Raleigh is pretty populated at night; I'd assume his friends would be along to collect him momentarily, and if not the cops are always around and cabs can be found. If this is a case of the deceased simply drinking too much and wandering into traffic, he unfortunately bears the responsibility for his own actions.

2. There have been several hit and run cases where the driver didn't know they hit a person. In Atlanta I remember a child getting out of his home at night and wondering alone onto I-285 at 4am. A driver hit and killed the child - didn't realize it until some days later after hearing the story on the news. The driver thought s/he'd hit an animal. Depending on the circumstances (like if this young man collapsed in the road or had fallen), it's possible the driver thought it was a deer. Again, I tend to give benefit of the doubt until I know otherwise. Especially when it's dark outside.

This is a terrible case - I feel for his friends and family. My son shares a name with this young man.

 

[Kaliste]

This case caught my eye as I am from NC and went to college at UNC-CH. Consequently, I've spent a lot of time in and around Raleigh.

A few things: 1. Until we know more, let's not give the Shaw U. students any blame for not calling the authorities. When I was in college, I'd call authorities/intervene only if a stranger was having a medical emergency or in imminent danger (woman passed out half naked in frat house, etc), especially if that person said no to my offers of help. Downtown Raleigh is pretty populated at night; I'd assume his friends would be along to collect him momentarily, and if not the cops are always around and cabs can be found. If this is a case of the deceased simply drinking too much and wandering into traffic, he unfortunately bears the responsibility for his own actions.

2. There have been several hit and run cases where the driver didn't know they hit a person. In Atlanta I remember a child getting out of his home at night and wondering alone onto I-285 at 4am. A driver hit and killed the child - didn't realize it until some days later after hearing the story on the news. The driver thought s/he'd hit an animal. Depending on the circumstances (like if this young man collapsed in the road or had fallen), it's possible the driver thought it was a deer. Again, I tend to give benefit of the doubt until I know otherwise. Especially when it's dark outside.

This is a terrible case - I feel for his friends and family. My son shares a name with this young man.

Isn't a young man passed out or semi passed out on the side of a road in imminent danger?

 

[alreetlike]

I'm so angry about the guys who saw him on the side of the road and did nothing but take a picture. You don't leave an impaired person on the side of the road...this was predictable and preventable. I've chased ducks off the side of the road before, picked up stray cats and dogs, even dragged a giant box to the other side of the rail so it wouldn't cause an accident.

If you see a person in distress ANYWHERE (and especially somewhere they could be hurt) call 911. How is that not common sense??

Unfortunately, in the world we live in now many people will reach for their phones.. but to grab a photo and post it on Facebook/Twitter, rather than call for help. There are all sorts of Twitter accounts, which I won't name, dedicated to posting photos of drunk teens/students in stupid situations (e.g. their friends have drawn all over their faces, or they've been sick down themselves) and sadly, some peoples' gut reaction on seeing someone in that position is that they could get X number of retweets for a 'funny' picture.

I suspect/hope that in hindsight those people are feeling pretty bad about not doing anything to assist.