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Police: Suspect Flees Scene Of Fatal Crash

POSTED: 8:13 am EDT August 27, 2008
UPDATED: 6:01 pm EDT August 27, 2008

A local man has been charged after fleeing the scene of a crash in Middleburg Heights that tied up traffic for hours and killed a man Tuesday night.

Police said 59-year-old Hulmulth Kotschi was speeding on Interstate 71 and rear-ended a pickup truck, sending it flipping into the median.

The people in the truck were ejected and Kotschi took off, police said.

Shawn McIlwain and his uncle, Fred Turley, were heading back from a fishing trip when their truck was hit. Neither was wearing a seat belt and McIlwain died at a hospital.

McIlwain leaves behind a wife, Amanda, and a baby daughter.

"We have a 6-month-old daughter. She's never going to have any memories of him, just what we tell her," said Amanda McIlwain.

Turley went through surgery on Wednesday, and family said the crash shattered bones in his face, arms and pelvis.

Police said Kotschi was later arrested at his Middleburg Heights home. Police said he had alcohol on his breath.

"He took my heart away, but I would tell him that I forgive him because it's going to take much more in me to hate him than to forgive him. Because he's going to wake up every day, like I do, and know that he took him away from family and friends," said McIlwain.

Investigators are still waiting for blood-alcohol tests to come back.

Kotschi is being held on a $1 million bond.



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