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SALT LAKE COUNTY -- After locating the vehicle involved in a fatal hit-and-run that occurred early Sunday morning and questioning the 19-year-old believed to have been behind the wheel, police have released the teen without charging him.
After the teen turned himself in at police headquarters Monday night, he was interviewed with his lawyer for nearly five hours.
Police say based on that interview, they need to question several other people possibly involved in the case before submitting formal charges against him to the Salt Lake District Attorney's Office.
Police say they released the teen after he provided good information in regard to his involvement with the hit-and-run accident that killed 43-year-old James Waggerby early Sunday morning. Police say based on the interview and the evidence they collected from the teen, they're also confident that the vehicle they seized from his parents' home Monday night is the vehicle that was involved in the case.
Lt. Don Hutson with the Unified Police Department said, "He certainly did not deny involvement in the incident. We don't believe he will try to deny that it was some other item, or that he didn't know that he was involved with hitting a person; that is not the direction that he went as far as the information that we have, but I can't get too much more specific with what he talked about in the interviews."
He certainly did not deny involvement in the incident.
–- Lt. Don Hutson, Unified Police Department
Meanwhile, Waggerby's family is happy to finally have some answers.
"We've all been 19 and we've all made mistakes, but it would have been easier to handle knowing that my brother wasn't just left to die in the road," said Danielle Waggerby, James' sister.
Family members spoke to the media Tuesday afternoon at the Unified Police Department. Waggerby's mother, Gladys, says she's already lost three children. She says it's difficult to forgive the suspect.
"He's not remorseful," she said. "You don't go and take a car, hide it and change damages and try to avoid what you have done. A remorseful [person] doesn't do this."
Police say they could have formally arrested the teen on several charges Monday night after seizing his SUV; however, they felt it necessary to further investigate what he told them during their interview.
Police also say the need to further investigate how some of the repairs on the SUV were made, since it's obvious that someone tried to cover up the damage.
"There were some things removed, and there was some things done to the vehicle to try to make it look like it was not involved in the accident," explained Hutson. "It was covered so people would not see it easily. It had a tarp over it and it was placed where it wouldn't be easy to see from the road."
Police say they don't believe the teen is a flight risk; they say he and his parents were very cooperative last night. Police say they expect to submit the formal charges against him sometime in the near future.
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Story compiled with contributions from Shara Park, Sandra Yiand Mary Richards.
