FLORISSANT, Mo. — A teenage girl remained in intensive care Friday night, days after she was struck by a hit-and-run driver in north St. Louis County.
Naishia Carroll said she was looking forward to having some fun with her 15-year-old niece, Turkia Tones, at their home in Florissant.
"Monday night was supposed to be our girls' night. We were gonna do nails," she said.
Carroll later learned Turkia, who is one of nine siblings, left home and walked to a neighborhood store with a friend.
But her niece never returned.
"Teenagers sometimes they get like, 'OK, I'm gonna go hang out' and that's what we really thought this was," she said.
The 10th grader's worried aunt filed a missing persons report. Then two days later, on Wednesday, a St. Louis County police officer came to their home and told them Turkia had been struck by car on Lindbergh near New Halls Ferry Road at around 10 Monday night.
The driver left the scene.
Turkia's mother, Sarah Buchanan, cried as she recounted what happened to her daughter.
"How can you just hit her like that and just keep going?" Buchanan asked.
"You just left her there like roadkill! Nobody deserves that," Carroll said.
Buchanan said her daughter suffered numerous injuries.
"Both of her legs are broken. Her pelvis is broken. Her ribs are broken. Her spleen is cut. They had to stop the internal bleeding. It's bad," she said.
The teen underwent three surgeries. She's now out of a coma and can only remember that someone in a white truck apparently hit her.
"She's screaming," Carroll said. "She just can't believe that this happened to her."
As detectives are working to see if nearby business owners have surveillance video, Turkia's family is pleading for the driver to come forward.
"People make mistakes, but you changed our lives forever," Buchanan said, "and we're just hoping that she can walk again. All of that. It's gonna be a journey."