Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
OREM — A deadly collision has one family struggling to come to terms with the loss of their loved one more than five weeks later.
Shantel Sullivan said Thursday it had been 38 days with barely any answers from police in the death of her mother.
"It's frustrating," Sullivan, of Grantsville, told KSL. "The only thing I have is from witnesses."
On Sept. 12, Sullivan said her 73-year-old mother Sharon Fawson was hit and killed in an apparent auto-pedestrian collision near Sharon Park, 266 E. 600 North.
According to Sullivan, Fawson had gone by herself to the pickleball courts and was returning when witnesses said she was struck by a car.
"The witnesses had stated that she was walking and they didn't see the car's headlights and next thing you knew she wasn't there anymore," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said, other than an initial notification from Grantsville police, who came to her door the night of the collision; and a call on Monday from Orem police, saying it would be a couple more weeks before they would have information to release, she had heard nothing from investigators — even regarding the most basic details of what happened.
"You're just left to guess and that's the hard part," Sullivan said. "I want justice for my mom — like, she lost her life that night, you know."
On Thursday evening, an Orem police spokesman returned a call from KSL, and said the department had been in regular contact with the family the entire time, but he also declined to provide the details of what happened that night, and that was after multiple calls and a Government Records Access and Management Act open records request placed to the department.
The open records request was denied on grounds that the collision remains under investigation.
"They said once they take it to the city attorneys, which would be the first or second week of November, then we can, maybe, possibly, have some answers," Sullivan said.
Sullivan said she was remembering her mother as a fun woman who "could make friends anywhere" and found her grandchildren to be her "pride and joy."
She hoped closure in her mother's case would come one day.
"This is somebody that is no longer here," Sullivan said. "There's just not a lot of answers."
