Joliet Police Continue Fatal Hit-and-Run Investigation

• Joliet Man, 62, Killed in Hit and Run: Police

The Joliet man had left the Crow's Nest bar, 1400 N. Center St., and was headed for his home just down the road.

Joliet Police Chief Brian Benton said reports that Bausal may have been run down following a verbal altercation at the bar have proven to be untrue.

"There is no indication that this was intentional," Benton said. 

He said police hope the hit and run driver's conscience prompts him or her to come forward. He pointed to the 2008 death of Melissa Lech, who was killed in a hit and run on McDonough Street.

In that case, it took three years for a Naperville man to come forward and admit to hitting 20-year-old Lech, who was walking home from Joliet's City of Champions bar.

• Read: Hit and Run Victim's Family Settles Wrongful Death Suit
  
  

"Hopefully, this is playing on someone's conscience," Benton said of Bausal's death.

Benton said it's possible the person who struck Bausal may not have realized it, noting that the road was coved with snow and plagued by potholes.

"Our greatest fear is that someone might not have known they hit him," he said.

Do you know something?

Anyone who has information on Bausal's death is asked to call Officer George Mantis of the Joliet Police Department’s Traffic Unit at 815-724-3013, CrimeStoppers at 800-323-6734, send a tip to www.jolietpolice.org, or text-a-tip at WILLCOCS @274637. Witnesses can always remain anonymous, police said.