Weeks after auto-pedestrian death, Utah family wants answers
Oct 20, 2022, 11:42 PM | Updated: Oct 21, 2022, 5:30 am
OREM, Utah — A deadly collision has one family struggling to come to terms with the loss of their loved one more than five weeks later.
Shantel Sullivan said Thursday it had been 38 days with barely any answers at all from police in the death of her mother.
“It’s frustrating,” Sullivan told KSL TV in an interview from her home in Grantsville. “The only thing I have is from witnesses.”
On Sept. 12, Sullivan said 73-year-old Sharon Fawson was hit and killed in an apparent auto-pedestrian collision near Sharon Park, 266 E. 600 North.
According to Sullivan, Fawson had gone by herself over to the pickleball courts and was returning when witnesses said she was struck by a car.
“The witnesses had stated that she was walking and they didn’t see the car’s headlights and next thing you knew she wasn’t there anymore,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said other than an initial notification from Grantsville Police, who came to her door the night of the collision, and a call on Monday from Orem Police saying it would be a couple more weeks before they would have information to release, she had heard nothing from investigators — even regarding the most basic details of what happened.
“You’re just left to guess and that’s the hard part,” Sullivan said. “I want justice for my mom — like, she lost her life that night, you know.”
On Thursday evening, an Orem Police spokesman returned a call to KSL and maintained the department had been in regular contact with family the entire time, but he also once again declined to provide the basic details of what happened, and that was after multiple calls and an open records request placed to the department.
The open records request was denied on grounds that the collision remained under investigation.
“They said once they take it to the city attorneys, which would be the first or second week of November, then we can maybe, possibly have some answers,” Sullivan said.
Sullivan said she was remembering her mother as a fun woman who “could make friends anywhere” and found her grandchildren to be her “pride and joy.”
She hoped closure in her mother’s case would come one day.
“This is somebody that is no longer here,” Sullivan said. “There’s just not a lot of answers.”
