Fiancé hopes community can provide answers to hit-and-run accident

INDIANAPOLIS – Less than a week after Alexandra Leal was struck and killed while walking through a grassy area on Lynhurst Drive, her fiancé Shane Bernard recently returned to the exact spot where it happened.

He brought flowers – and found a special bracelet.

“I just picked it up from the grass, it belongs to my little daughter, and a few socks flew out. That cost her her life, those socks and some other documents,” said Bernard.

He said Alexandra was wearing the bracelet as the two were driving home after leaving a storage unit. Alexandra noticed something flying off the truck.

“I said, 'Let's just go.' She said, 'Pull over, we don't know what it is.' I pulled over. I said, 'Stay in the car, I have it.' She got out. She said, 'I'll help you,'” Bernard said.

The next moments were recorded by a neighbor’s surveillance camera.

“We walked to the truck. I turned around and saw the headlights coming straight at us. I said, 'Go away, Alexandra!' That's all I could say. He hit her and I saw her fly high through the air,” Bernard said.

Bernard said two of her children were in her truck at the time. He said he finally got the courage on Monday to tell his daughter that her mother wasn't coming home from the hospital.

“I had to look her in the eyes and tell her that her mother was never coming back. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life,” Bernard said.

Bernard said Alexandra was as beautiful inside as she was outside.

“Everyone loved her,” he said. “She was so great. She was an angel. You didn't have to come and take her away from us so quickly.”

After days of not receiving any answers, Bernard asks the community for help in getting justice.

“He has to do the right thing and turn himself in. Someone has to know something. Someone has to know that this car has damage that you see every day,” Bernard said.

13News previously reported that IMPD is looking for a silver Toyota Camry (model year 2002-2006). Police said no arrests have been made yet and the investigation is ongoing.

Police are asking anyone with information to call IMPD's Traffic Unit at 317-327-6549. Tips can also be sent anonymously to Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS (8477).