Jacksonville mom vows to find hit-and-run driver that killed her son

A local mother is determined to find out who hit her son with a vehicle and left him lying in the woods dead.

“You’re not supposed to bury your children,” Lori Childers said.

Troopers said her son, 32-year-old Joshua Tomlinson, was hit by a truck as he was walking down Beaver Street early Sunday morning, less than a mile away from his home. They said the driver took off, and Tomlinson’s body was left in the woods for hours before he was found.

“I keep picturing it in my head, of him getting hit that way. It will be with me forever. My life will never be the same again,” she said.

Childers said she has a question that, right now, no one can answer.

“Because maybe if they would’ve stopped, then maybe they could’ve saved him,” she said. “He was a wonderful person, he had a huge heart, he loved everybody."

Childers is hurting, but she’s vowing to find her son’s killer.

Investigators want people to be on the lookout for a 2009 Ford F-150. They aren’t sure of the color, but they believe it has damage to the headlight, hood, and possibly the windshield.

“We are looking for you, not just us, but officers, detectives. We are looking for you, and we will --somebody will find you,” she said.

Cox Media Group