Canal Winchester Schools/Facebook;iStock
Police in Ohio are searching for two male suspects involved in the tragic death of Alexa Stakely, a 29-year-old woman who was thrown from her vehicle while trying to prevent it from being stolen with her sleeping 6-year-old son inside.
Columbus police responded to an apartment complex around 1:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Upon arrival, they found Stakely lying in the roadway with traumatic injuries. She was pronounced dead at a hospital a few hours later.
Stakely, a single mother working two jobs, had just finished her shift as a waitress and was picking up her son from his babysitter’s home, according to police. She carried her sleeping son to her Honda SUV parked outside and left it running while she retrieved one of his belongings from the babysitter, told, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
“As she returned to her SUV, it began to back out into the roadway,” police stated in a news release. Stakely ran toward the vehicle but was struck and thrown to the pavement. The SUV was driven through the apartment complex and abandoned a short distance away. Responding officers found it and recovered her sleeping child, unharmed.
Police reported that two males were seen running past Stakely as she lay in the roadway. They jumped a fence and disappeared into a neighboring apartment complex. Earlier that morning, surveillance video captured a group of males looking into apartments in the area of Castenea Way. When confronted, they went further into the complex and out of view. Two of these males matched the description of those seen at the complex where Stakely had picked up her son.
Columbus police have not yet returned requests for further comment. Stakely was a speech-language pathologist known as “Ms. Alexa” to her students at Winchester Trail Elementary School, where she worked in the preschool program. The Canal Winchester Local Schools District, where she had been employed for five years, released a statement remembering her as “a great mom who was incredibly dedicated to her son.”
“Alexa was passionate about children and speech-language therapy,” the district said. “She was smart and compassionate, and she cared so much about helping children develop their ability to communicate.”
The district also noted, “Ms. Stakely made a difference in the lives of the students and families she worked with and will be missed by so many in our community and beyond.” As the search for the suspects continues, the community mourns the loss of a dedicated mother and educator who touched the lives of many.
