A woman has died after a hit-and-run in Mississauga, and police are now appealing directly to the driver responsible to come forward. The case has prompted investigators to make a pointed plea to whoever was behind the wheel to turn themselves in.
According to Peel Regional Police, the woman was walking early on Sunday morning in the area of Eglinton Avenue and Erin Mills Parkway when the collision occurred. It was there, on a quiet stretch at that early hour, that she was struck by a passing vehicle.
Police say the vehicle that hit her failed to remain at the scene, leaving the injured woman behind as it drove off. Emergency crews rushed her to hospital, where despite their efforts she later was pronounced dead from her injuries.
Investigators have made clear they believe the driver could not have failed to notice the impact. They said it is impossible that the person responsible would be unaware that they had struck someone, framing the decision to flee as a deliberate one.
As a result, police are calling on the driver to turn themselves in, appealing to them to take responsibility for what happened rather than remain at large. The plea reflects the seriousness with which authorities are treating the fatal crash.
In a key development, police said the vehicle involved has since been identified by the Major Collision Bureau as a 2015 to 2020 model year Mercedes-Benz GLA, either a 250 or 45 series, white in colour. Investigators said a vehicle of that type would have sustained severe front-end damage in the collision.
The investigation into the hit-and-run is continuing as police work to trace the vehicle and the person who was driving it. Authorities are appealing to any witnesses, or anyone who may have seen a matching white Mercedes with front-end damage, to come forward as they press for the driver to surrender.
In the days since, the woman has been identified by her family as 38-year-old Chanel Alcock Radmore, and relatives have spoken publicly to keep her memory alive even as they grieve. They described a devastating morning: on Sunday, she had dropped her husband, Shawn, at Credit Valley Hospital for an appointment, then parked her car and began walking toward the building, but never made it across the street. Her parents said they keep replaying the day in their heads, with her mother describing the anguish of losing the child she still thought of as her baby.
Family members said Chanel had so much still ahead of her, noting that she had married Shawn, her sweetheart of six years, only at the end of May. As she put it in her wedding vows, she had been the sports lover and he the self-described nerd, but somehow the two had made it work. Four days after the crash, with the driver still not found, the family joined police in urging whoever was responsible, or anyone with information, to come forward.