Illinois State Police are asking for your help finding a hit-and-run driver who killed a World War II veteran and seriously injured his elderly wife.
The wreck happened January 5 along I-64 eastbound near Nashville, Illinois. Friday, police identified the car that crashed into the couple as a black, 2007 Cadillac CTS.
Family tells Five On Your Side Ervin and Patricia Goeden were on their way to Florida from Omaha, Nebraska, for their annual winter getaway. It’s a trip they’d made each year for 38 years, and they were just about to wrap up the first day of the journey when the wreck happened.
Patricia’s son, Gene Tomasello, was driving and noticed a speeding car closing in on them.
"It was behind us one minute and alongside us the next,” he said.
Before he knew it, his car was off the road and in a tree. That speeding car had hit them, but it was nowhere to be found.
"It didn't take long to figure out that it was a hit and run,” Tomasello said.
Tomasello said his 93-year-old stepfather was a bomber pilot in World War II and retired as a lieutenant colonel.
"You survive all the literal and figurative bullets only to be killed by a dingbat on an interstate in Southern Illinois,” he said.
Patricia was transferred to a hospital in Omaha, and her family hasn't left her side. They Facetimed with us from there Friday, listing off her numerous injuries.
"Several broken vertebrae in the middle of her back, broken wrist, broken ribs,” Tomasello said. She could be in the hospital several more months recovering.
The couple’s family is grateful for the first responders and the community who helped them, and they’re offering a $3,500 reward for anyone with information that leads to the hit-and-run driver.
