The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office has identified the victim involved in the fatality hit & run accident from early Sunday morning and has charged a Clinton County resident with a felony count of Leaving the Scene of an Accident.
Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth identified the victim as 44-year-old Thomas Ketcher of Washington C.H. During the course of the investigation on Sunday, the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office received a tip concerning the possible whereabouts of a vehicle involved in the fatality crash.
Detectives located a black Ford Fusion with damage to the windshield and passenger side at a residence on S. Jackson Street in the Village of Sabina in Clinton County. Detectives discovered that 19-year-old Elijah A. Stanforth of Sabina was the operator of the vehicle at the time of the crash. Stanforth was traveling east on Old Route 35 approximately 3am on Sunday morning and reportedly struck Mr. Ketcher and left the scene without the reporting the crash. Mr. Ketcher was found deceased in the ditch on the south side of the roadway around dawn on Sunday morning after a report from a motorist of a subject in the ditch.
Elijah Stanforth was incarcerated in the Fayette County Jail and appeared before the Washington Court House Municipal Court on Monday where he entered a not guilty plea and was ordered held in lieu of a $10,000 cash/surety bond. Stanforth subsequently posted bond and was released from jail early Monday evening.