Waukesha police seek leads on driver who struck, killed dog, hurt owner

June 11, 2012

0 Comments

By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

June 11, 2012 0

Waukesha - Waukesha police are asking for help in locating the driver of a hit-and-run vehicle that killed a Town of Waukesha woman's service dog and left her with a broken foot Friday night.

"I've been crying forever," Deborah Schultz said Monday, explaining that her golden retriever, Lexie, was a gift from her husband, John, given four days before he was killed in an accident in 2008.

As a result of her husband's accident and death, Schultz said she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and had Lexie trained as a service dog who accompanied her everywhere.

Schultz, 54, said she was headed to her car from her sister's business in downtown Waukesha and its Friday night concert series when the accident occurred. She was in the crosswalk at N. Barstow St. and Broadway about 9:45 p.m. when hit, police said.

Several witnesses saw the accident and got a partial license plate number, Police Capt. Ron Oremus said. A piece of the fender was left at the scene.

Police are looking for a cream or light-colored 1993-1995 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo with damage to the passenger side front quarter panel, Oremus said. The vehicle, last seen driving east on E. Main St. from Barstow St., had a license plate number that included the numbers "22," he said.

Anyone with information should call Waukesha police accident investigator-specialist Steve Kraus at (262) 524-3839.

Schultz said she had the green light when she crossed, and suddenly she saw lights coming toward her.

"It came out of nowhere," she said. Schultz recalls Lexie turning in to protect her and getting caught under the truck.

"I was on the ground," she said. She saw Lexie drop out of the wheel well of the truck and then move over to a grassy area, but Schultz couldn't reach the dog to comfort her. Emergency personnel tried to resuscitate the dog at the scene without success.

Schultz said her husband knew how badly she felt after her 18-year-old golden retriever had died. So on Sept. 5, 2008, John Schultz gave Lexie to her. Four days later, Schultz said, he hit a tree on Big Bend Road in the Town of Waukesha, not far from the couple's home. According to a news report of the accident, two witnesses and a sheriff's deputy pulled him from the burning truck, but he died at the scene.

Schultz said witnesses told her that her husband hit the tree after swerving to avoid two dogs running loose on the road.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.