Raleigh police again seek public’s help finding driver who fatally hit 12-year-old girl
More than five months after someone hit and killed a 12-year-old girl on Hillsborough Street, Raleigh police are again asking for the public’s help finding the driver.
Officers will stop motorists near the spot where Samantha Briggs died and hand out flyers with information about the car they think hit her. Raleigh police tried a similar leafleting effort in the middle of the afternoon of Dec. 16 and quickly ran out of flyers.
This time, though, they’ve chosen to starting handing out the flyers at 7 on Friday evening, about the same time and on the same day of the week that Samantha was killed.
“The time is deliberate,” said police spokesman Jason Borneo.
Samantha was hit at 7:33 p.m. on the day after Thanksgiving as she and four others were attempting to cross Hillsborough near Bashford Road, just east of Cary, after a trip to a nearby Sheetz convenience store. She had just turned 12 the day before.
Police say the driver was going eastbound on Hillsborough and drove off after hitting Samantha at about 45 mph.
Based on debris left at the scene, police think the car was a white Honda Civic EX, model year 2006, 2007 or 2008.
The speed limit along that stretch of Hillsborough is 45 mph, and the road is three lanes wide, with two travel lanes and a center turn lane. Police say the driver swerved into the center turn lane, where Samantha may have paused on her way across. It was after dark, and there are no crosswalks or streetlights nearby.
Police ask anyone who thinks they may have information that might help their hit-and-run investigation to visit Crimestoppers at www.p3tips.com/897 for text and email reporting options or call 919-996-1193. There’s a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
Samantha was one of 29 pedestrians killed in Raleigh or just outside the city limits last year. That’s more than three times the annual average in the city since 2006.
This story was originally published May 12, 2023 at 2:08 PM.
