Family files wrongful death suit against in Joliet hit-and-run
The family of a Joliet woman who died in a 2008 hit-and-run crash has filed a wrongful-death suit against the Naperville man who confessed to the killing earlier this year.
Melissa Lech, a 20-year-old University of Illinois student, was walking home from a sports bar just after midnight on Aug. 7, 2008 when a car traveling on McDonough Street west of Infantry Drive in Joliet struck her and left the scene. In February, David McCarthy IV came to the house of Lech's sister Michelle where she says he confessed to being behind the wheel of the vehicle that struck and killed Melissa.
On Thursday, her mother Maria Lech filed the wrongful death suit in Will County court. It seeks more than $50,000 in damages.
McCarthy, 28, of the 1800 block of Cliffside Court in Naperville, was said to have rang the doorbell at Lech's sister's house on Feb. 26, and then spent about 10 minutes talking to her on the couch. He didn't identify himself, but as he was leaving, Michelle Lech and her husband were able to get a partial license plate number of McCarthy's car and provide police with a physical description of him.
Authorities said at the time McCarthy confessed in part because he had seen and was moved by the family's “media blitz” last summer that tried to keep Lech's memory alive.
McCarthy has been charged with hit-and-run/leaving the scene of a personal injury or death accident.
He is due in court Tuesday.
The wrongful death suit is scheduled for a case management conference on Oct. 16.