A 30-year-old Fresno woman is behind bars after police say they tracked down a car hidden under tarps and secured with stolen landscaping rocks, connecting it to a hit-and-run crash that killed a man in his 80s as he pushed a cart across the street. Mariah Irion was booked into the Fresno County Jail on suspicion of felony hit-and-run causing death, vehicular manslaughter and driving on a suspended license, nearly a month after the man died at the scene near McKinley and Normal avenues.
According to GV Wire, the man was crossing McKinley Avenue with his cart when a westbound vehicle struck him on Sept. 13. GV Wire reported the collision happened at about 8:24 p.m., while The Fresno Bee reported officers responded to the area around 8:30 p.m. and found the pedestrian lying in the roadway, and KSEE24/YourCentralValley put the crash at around 9 p.m. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, per the GV Wire report.
License Plate Reader Leads Detectives to Hidden Car
The driver did not stay at the scene, and detectives turned to an automated license plate reader to identify a possible suspect vehicle, the outlet's report states. That lead eventually took officers to a car abandoned northeast of the crash site, discovered covered with tarps and secured with rocks that had been taken from a neighboring residence, police said in the same account.
Investigators said the vehicle showed physical evidence and damage consistent with striking a pedestrian, and it was impounded as evidence. That evidence pointed detectives toward Irion, whom they identified as the suspect responsible for the collision, according to the report.
Arrest Came Weeks After the Deadly Crash
Irion was arrested Friday at a residence near Lamona Avenue and Bond Street, about 26 days after the man was killed. She now faces charges that include felony hit-and-run causing death and vehicular manslaughter.
McKinley Avenue has proven especially dangerous for pedestrians in Fresno in years past. A 76-year-old woman was struck and killed while crossing McKinley Avenue near Harrison Avenue on April 27, according to columnist Marek Warszawski's reporting for The Fresno Bee, and a separate hit-and-run driver killed 29-year-old Monique Contreraz and her dog at Herndon and Milburn avenues on May 13. Fresno police figures cited in that same column counted at least 14 pedestrians killed on city roadways in 2022, following 22 the year before, 29 in 2020, 20 in 2019 and 25 in 2018.
