Family mourns Hersey sophomore killed by hit-and-run driver

Prospect Heights police and the Major Crime Assistance Team are questioning a suspect and witnesses in a hit-and-run accident that killed a 15-year-old Arlington Heights girl late Saturday as she crossed Elmhurst Road.

Monika Skrzypkowski was killed about 11 p.m., minutes after she called her mother for a ride home from her boyfriend's family birthday party. While waiting, the Hersey High School sophomore and her friends decided to take a walk, said her mother, Margaret Skrzypkowski, on Sunday.

"By the time we got there, there were already ambulances on the road and people running back and forth," Skrzypkowski said. "We held her hand as they tried to revive her and kept telling her to hang on, not to give up."

Monika was transported to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, where her family said staff worked for 40 minutes to revive her.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said Monika died of multiple injuries from the accident.

Police reports said Monika was struck in the northbound lane of the 200 block of North Elmhurst Road. The driver fled the scene, but police said they located the car and driver suspected in the crash on Sunday morning.

Margaret Skrzypkowski said she and her husband, Arthur, will miss their daughter's big heart, beautiful brown eyes with long lashes, and her amazing smile.

"When she smiled she looked like a ray of sunshine," said Skrzypkowski. "We have four children, one born in every season, and now we've lost our spring."

Nicknamed Monia by her family, Monika excelled in art classes at Hersey and loved to draw. She also channeled her creative side by cutting and styling her own hair and her friends,' and dancing with a troupe from Emilia Plater Polish School in Schaumburg.

Monika was set to graduate Polish school, which she's attended since childhood, this year.

Her friends are also stunned by the loss, with more than 103 teens joining a Facebook group created to memorialize Monika by Sunday evening. Hersey sophomore Cayla Phillips, a classmate who started the Facebook group, said Monika was a strong girl who shunned gossip and "was just a fun soul."

"I'll always remember her laugh because it was just so contagious," Phillips said.

Memorial services are not yet arranged for Monika Skrzypkowski. In addition to her parents, she leaves behind her siblings Kasia, 4, Adam, 6, and Martin, 13.