Photo: GoFundMe
Police say the driver, who has not been publicly named, allegedly fled the scene after he hit Jeremy Maraj who was walking across the street around 7:40 p.m. on July 17.
The seventh-grader was playing in a park across the street from his Union Township home.
The boy died two days later.
Police Lt. Victor Correia says officers learned the identity of the driver two days after the deadly hit-and-run when the man’s employer called police.
“The owner of the company reached out to us,” he tells PEOPLE. “The driver couldn’t explain to the owner about the damage. He couldn’t tell him what happened to the van.”
Correia says the van had sustained heavy passenger side damage and a smashed windshield.
Jeremy and his mother Lisa.GoFundMe
The owner, says Correia, became suspicious and searched online for accidents and saw that there was a possible hit and run in the area where the driver had been.
“He went on the Internet typing in any type of accident in the area where [the driver] was supposed to be and this happened to come up,” says Correia. “We put it up on our Facebook page.”
“He did all the background and brought it to us,” he says of the business owner. “If it wasn’t for him we would still be looking for the van. He had kids too and felt for the family.”
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Correia says the man has yet to be arrested and declined an interview with police.
“It is still an ongoing investigation,” he says. “We have identified the driver and the van and are in the process of doing the background investigation. It is already in the prosecutor’s office hands.”
The boy’s mother, Lisa Jamurath, toldWABC, that the family donated Jeremy’s heart, kidney, liver and pancreas.
Anyone who witnessed to the crash is asked to contact the Township of Union Police Department Traffic Bureau at (908) 851-5070.
source: people.com
