Arrest in St. Johns County cold case hit-and-run brings hope for other victims' families

On Monday, St. Johns County deputies arrested 29-year-old Tiffany Higginbotham in the 2013 hit-and-run death of 15-year-old Haley Smith.

The news of that arrest is spreading among other local families waiting for justice for their loved ones killed in hit-and-runs years ago.

“It's still frustrating. You want it to be solved,” local mom Bridget Massie said. Her son, Michael England, died in a hit-and-run crash while walking home. That driver was never arrested.

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Michael’s roadside memorial marks the crime scene off Pitts and Slay roads in northwest Jacksonville since the incident in 2013.

“I don’t care if it takes 10 years, I want it solved,” Massie said

“We’ve seen cases that are solved 20, 30 years later,” Action News Jax crime and safety expert Ken Jefferson said.

Jefferson said cracking the case can fall on forensic evidence surfacing, and witnesses or even the stepping forward.

“There is hope because they are solving the cases, “ Jefferson said.

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St. Johns County deputies say witnesses and trace evidence led them to Higginbotham.

“That (arrest) adds extra hope,” Massie said.

A local group called Project Cold Case tells Action News Jax from 2002 through June 2016, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has at least 42 unsolved hit and run fatality cases.

Meanwhile Crime Stoppers says they have only gotten four tips in Bridget Massie’s son’s case total, with the most recent coming in 2015.

Cox Media Group