Hit and run driver left clues behind

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A driver crashed into a single mother walking along the road and left her in a ditch for dead. 

It wasn't until hours later that neighbors discovered her body. 

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office is looking for whoever was behind the wheel, while the Seffner woman's family is left trying to push through the pain.

"I'm still kinda having a hard time wrapping my mind around it,” Jessica Swick said.  “I just can't picture our lives without her."

Swick is talking about her cousin Linda Fisher.  The 46-year-old woman was more like a sister to her, and the heart of the family.

"Linda definitely loved her family, she was a very hardworking woman, very good mom, loved her kids,” she said.

The mother of two was walking home from work Friday night along Black Dairy Road in Seffner. 

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office tells us a vehicle slammed into Linda around 11:30 p.m. and kept on driving, leaving her to die on the side of the street in a ditch.

"She was lying face down, and I just thought it was a dummy, like a mannequin," said Kevin Earnest.

The reality was much worse.

Earnest and his brother found Linda in-front of their house around 7 Saturday morning.  He had given her a ride home recently and recognized her immediately.

"You know, she sat there all night long.  It's just not right," Earnest said.

There aren't many streetlights along Black Dairy Road, but loved ones say Linda frequently walked the roadway to get to work or the store.  She was just a half mile from home when she was hit.

Investigators are searching for the driver.  They say the vehicle could be red or orange based on wreckage found at the scene.       

Family members say Linda could still be here if that person had just called 911.

"I personally can't fathom, as a human being, being able to walk away from somebody or something that you've just hit in the road not knowing if they're alive or dead,” Swick said.

If you know anything about the hit and run wreck, call the Sheriff's Office.