On September 20th of the year 2000, at about 12 noon, while on her way home for a meeting with her lawyer, my baby sister of 24 years, Melissa, was struck head on by a man driving a large black pick-up truck, and was killed instantly on impact.  My sister's passenger was pretty banged up, and a female passenger in the truck was seriously wounded.

While my sister was dead and her boy friend seriously wounded, the two men in the truck were able to jump out of their vehicle and try to make a run for it before the cops could arrive, leaving their female passenger, someone that they knew, seriously wounded and dying in the truck.

At the time of the accident the police reported to my family, off the record, that the driver was drunk, was driving on an suspended license and had been found to be carrying $60,000 in cash as well as being in possession of "illegal substances."

The officers also reported that the truck attempted to pass a moving van who in turn was swerving to give room to a young woman walking her baby along the side of the highway.  The Officers said that as the moving van swerved, the truck sped up and tried to pass by crossing the center line and going into oncoming traffic.

After much work on the behalf of the family lawyer, we have a complete and actual list of the charges as well as the official witness statements regarding the accident itself.

First off, the police officers who offered this information to the family failed to mention that the driver of the vehicle was stone sober.  While he did leave the scene of the accident, when they took him into the hospital his toxicology report showed absolutely no alcohol in his system.  According to the police reports, the duo panicked after the accident both because the driver didn't have a license and because the passenger was carrying "illegal substances." 

The male passenger of the truck however was absolutely toasted and had $7,000 in cash on him as well as a small amount of "illegal substances."  

It also appears that the police description of the accident at the time wasn't even what was written up at the scene of the accident.  According to witnesses and several other vehicles involved in the ensuing pile-up, the black truck was in the second lane, alongside the moving van when IT swerved, hit the black truck and forced it across the center line and into oncoming traffic.

The driver of the black truck will be arraigned on charges of Leaving the Scene of a Fatal Accident and Driving Without a License on March 2nd, 2001.

With all the actual details finally out, we've filed a couple of lawsuits in regards to the tragic loss that my family and I have suffered.  But while there is no amount of justice or money that can make up for the loss we feel, we must move on and try to make sure that the guilty parties pay for their crimes and never get a chance to do something like this again.  Melissa would have wanted it that way.

I'd also like to take this time to offer the heart felt thanks of my family and I to everyone who has been there over the last couple months.  It has been difficult beyond belief and the support that I have received recently has helped out greatly.  You'll probably never know how much it has meant to me and my family.  We're all doing about as well as could be expected after a tragedy of this kinda and we all truly appreciate everything that everyone has done.

So good night Melissa.  I love you and you will be missed.

Melissa Kozlowski
April 9th, 1975 - September 20th, 2000

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