Police in Indiana, USA, have said that a bicycle was stolen from the victim of a hit and run incident minutes after the fatal collision.
Nicholas James Mruk, aged 24, had been riding on Hand Road, northwest of Fort Wayne, shortly before 8pm on the evening of Monday 31 October when he was struck by an unidentified vehicle, with the motorist failing to stop.
The Allen County Sheriff’s Department said that officers and medical staff were called but found the cyclist dead at the scene.
Witnesses told police that before their arrival, the driver of a second vehicle, possibly a dark-coloured minivan, had stopped, and that the victim’s bike was taken.
Police have appealed for anyone with information about the drive and vehicle involved in the original collision, or the second vehicle, to get in touch immediately.
While not mentioned in the police report, it is possible that the bicycle could provide vital clues to the vehicle involved in the fatal crash, for example through paint fragments left on the frame.
A coroner’s report following an autopsy said that Mr Mruk died due to “blunt force trauma due to motor vehicle crash” and gave the manner of death as “accident.”
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.