California Highway Patrol officers found a body lying in the roadway on Folsom Boulevard at LaQuinta Drive in Rosemont just after 10:30 p.m. Thursday, after responding to a report of a person in the street. The person had visible injuries, but officers say nothing about those injuries indicated they had been struck by a vehicle.
Despite that, CHP units treated the scene cautiously, taking measurements as if the incident could turn out to be a hit-and-run, according to The Sacramento Bee. Officers say they found no sign that a car was involved, but they are not ruling anything out until the Sacramento County Coroner's Office finishes an autopsy. As FOX40 reports, a CHP spokesperson said the coroner has doubts that the deceased was hit by a vehicle at all.
A fatality tracking feed corroborates the timeline, logging a fire department entry at 10:41 p.m. Thursday and a request for witness information roughly 35 minutes later, at 11:16 p.m., according to the CHP fatality feed. The entries suggest officers were still working to piece together what happened and looking for anyone who might have seen something.
Investigation On Hold Pending Autopsy
For now, CHP is in a holding pattern. Officials say they will wait for the autopsy results confirming the cause of the victim's death before continuing their investigation, per the same account from the Sacramento Bee. If the coroner's findings point to a vehicle strike after all, the agency says it will shift to investigating the case as a hit-and-run.
No identity has been released for the person found on Folsom Boulevard, and no vehicle description, suspect, or witness has been named in connection with the incident. The case remains open as investigators await word from the coroner's office.
A Different Kind of Hit-and-Run in South Sacramento
The uncertainty around the Rosemont case stands in contrast to a hit-and-run elsewhere in Sacramento that left little doubt about how it happened. Katrina Branner, 67, was struck and killed while walking near the intersection of Houston Way and Burdett Way in south Sacramento, according to the Sacramento Bee. Investigators believe she was hit by a white Nissan Altima from model year 2013 to 2016, and that the vehicle fled the scene. In that case, CHP officers responded to a call around 12:45 a.m. about a body lying in the roadway, a detail that echoes the overnight discovery in Rosemont even though the circumstances appear to differ.
The Rosemont case remains a developing story, and Hoodline will update this report as the coroner's office releases findings and as CHP provides further details on its investigation.
