Facebook solves 45-year-old hit-and-run case

By Lee Kyung-min

Facebook solved a 45-year-old hit-and-run case in Fulton, New York, reported Huffington Post, Wednesday.

A four-year-old girl, Carolee Sadie Ashby, was hit by a car in upstate New York on Halloween night in Fulton in 1968.

She later died because of the injury from that night.

A retired police officer, Lt. Russ Johnson, posted details of this unsolved case on a local history Facebook page.

A former resident, now in Florida, whose identification is protected by the police, saw the posting and reached him, according to Fulton police.

She told them that soon after the accident, she was approached by one of the family members of a Parkhurst, the convicted criminal.

They then asked her to say that she was with Parkhurst and his brother on Halloween night.

She refused to do so, and was never told why they wanted the alibi, police added.

Douglas Parkhurst, 62, was the driver who hit the then four-year-old girl in 1968, the police confirmed.

At the time, he lied and said that he hit a guard post.

Even though the dent in the car did not match his statement, the police had to let him go, said Sgt. Stephen Lunn Jr. from the Fulton police.

Parkhurst admitted that he drank on the night of the accident, and was driving with his brother passed out in the back seat when he hit something, Lunn said.

His statute of limitation has expired and so he cannot be charged, he added.

The family of the deceased girl was not answering the phone, Huffington Post added.