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MURRAY — A Bluffdale man is facing criminal charges accusing him of driving away after hitting and killing a pedestrian on a dark road.
Just before 6 a.m. on Feb. 9, Dixie Edgar, 44, of Salt Lake City, was hit by two vehicles and killed near 550 West and 4500 South. The driver of one vehicle stayed at the scene while a second drove away, according to charging documents.
Murray police learned that prior to being hit, Edgar was in a nearby convenience store and was "upset and crying" and, according to a store employee, "seemed confused and was crying that her boot was not laced," the charges state. Additional witnesses told police "Edgar was stumbling and crying in the roadway before being struck."
Investigators also noted that "the lighting in the area was dark, and that Edgar was hard to see as she was wearing a black coat and blue jeans" and "that Edgar was not visible walking on the roadway."
The driver of the second vehicle that hit Edgar told police she didn't know what she had hit until she backed up and "her headlights illuminated the body in the roadway that she realized she had struck a human," the charges state.
After police made a request to the public to help them find the driver of the primary vehicle that hit Edgar, the alleged driver, Douglas Shayne Hill, contacted officers about 1 p.m.
The 35-year-old Bluffdale man said he was heading to work and went around another vehicle when he hit something, the charges state. Hill said he pulled over, believing he had possibly blown out a tire after hitting something that had fallen off a construction truck, but then got back in his car and continued to work.
"I should have stopped because I don't know what I hit," he told police, according to the charges.
Hill says he drove back to the area during a break from work and saw a fire truck and "a lot of lights" and saw that the road was blocked off, but then drove back to work.
"Officers asked why Hill did not stop and flag down officers when he returned to the scene," the charges state. "Hill stated, 'If they had been picking up a body it would have changed my mind,'" and "legally he wished he had (stopped) but also did not want to see if it was a person in the road."
Hill says he contacted police after seeing news coverage of the incident. He was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with failing to remain at the scene of an accident involving death, a third-degree felony, and faulty vehicle equipment, an infraction.
