Family of 61-year-old Valley Station hit-and-run victim pleading for suspect to come forward

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A day after celebrating his birthday on Monday, a Valley Station man was killed in a hit-and-run.

He was an uncle, father and husband.

"I said, 'Hey this is a good man I'm going to spend the rest of my life with him,'" Sandy Mannell said.

That was 42 years ago. And since that January day in 1983, Sandy Mannell and her husband Dennis Mannell Jr. were inseparable.

HIT AND RUN FAMILY (2).jpeg — A 61-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run in Valley Station and his family is now pleading for the suspect to come forward. (WDRB photo)

"I never thought in a million years," she said.

Until they weren't.

"I said, 'Please let me take you I can take it,' he said 'I'll go,'" Sandy Mannell said.

Sandy said Dennis had borrowed her electric scooter late Tuesday night to stop at the Circle K near their home. He said he would wait the rain out before coming home.

"I said, 'I have a bad feeling,' he said, 'you always got those feelings,'" Sandy Mannell said.

On his way back from the gas station, Dennis was crossing Deering Road in Valley Station.

"Denny would not cross that street if a vehicle was coming I promise that my hand to God. He didn't see it coming," she said.

As he crossed the street, Louisville Metro Police said that's when a car hit him and drove away.

"They left him there to die," Sandy Mannell said.

Sandy said a different driver who saw the accident stayed with Mannell until an ambulance arrived.

He died on his way to the hospital.

"He was scared I know he was," Sandy Mannell said. "He was scared to die of lung cancer and I wasn't there."

And now his family is begging for one thing.

"I just want you to turn yourself in," Sandy Mannell said. "You don't know what you've done. You took my life. You took my life away from me. Please turn yourself in."

Police don't have a description of the vehicle that hit him.

LMPD's Traffic Unit asked that anyone with information to contact the anonymous tip line at 502-574-LMPD (5673). The crime tip portal can also be used. Click here.

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