Regina Chavis? children never will know if their mother even saw the white van before it slammed into her in southeast Baltimore ? then fled the scene.
What they do know is: Their lives are filled with a searing loss after the fatal hit-and-run.
“She was a loving mother. We were very close,” said Chris Chavis, 21.
“She used to make us a great Thanksgiving dinner. We?re battling our emotions. You?re battling that she?s missing from your life, and you?re battling that someone took her.”
That “someone,” Baltimore City police say, is the driver of a white van that never slowed down after striking the 57-year-old Chavis while she crossed the 500 block of South Clinton Street in Highlandtown.
“Nobody in the van stopped or checked her to see if she was OK,” said Officer Troy Harris, a spokesman for the Baltimore City Police Department.
Now city police are searching for two Hispanic males, they say, who were driving the van at the time of the crash at 2 p.m. Nov. 6.
The crime has gone unsolved for nearly a month, frustrating Chavis? family, which wasn?t told of the woman?s death until two days after the crash.
“My mom is a small lady,” Chris Chavis said. “She?s only 4-foot-11, 110 pounds. She flew 30 feet to the other side of the road when they hit her.”
A bricklayer, Chavis said he suspects the people who killed his mother were in the country illegally and are more concerned with being deported than helping the mother of two whom they struck.
“It seems like somebody was worried about himself too much,” Chavis said.
Family friend Laurie Reinhard said Chris and his sister, Regina, 29, have been in incredible pain since the incident. They?ve placed flowers at the spot of their mother?s death to commemorate her during the holidays.
“These men ran a red light. They ran her over and they didn?t even slow down,” Reinhard said.
“From what witnesses say, she went through the windshield. I don?t understand it. I don?t understand how someone can just keep going.”
