A woman who Florida police said was “hanging out” of a car window, fell out and died when she was struck by a vehicle which then fled the scene.
Mariah Michelle Logan, of Chicago, died in the hit-and-run as she was heading to Miami International Airport at about 4:45 a.m. Sunday, March 17, according to the Florida Highway Patrol, as cited by the Miami Herald.
Logan and three friends were returning from a three-day stay at South Beach, where they had been celebrating a birthday and enjoying spring break.
“It was a birthday trip,” said Xylina Griffin, Logan’s sister, according to WLS. “They went to have fun. They did have fun. I saw so many pictures and things. It just didn’t end the way it was supposed to.”
She fell out of the right rear passenger seat of a Hyundai Accent as it changed lanes and was struck and killed by a passing Range Rover, according to a Florida Highway Patrol incident report obtained by the Miami Herald.
Chicago woman, Mariah Michelle Logan killed in hit and run after falling out of back seat of rental car while leaning out – minutes before arriving at Miami airport to return home. Girl's trip with Trina Frazier, 24, Aaliyah Frazier, 23, and Kenyatta… https://t.co/L1QaHh8PmN
— Scallywagandvagabond (@ScallywagNYC) March 19, 2019
Police said the driver of that vehicle initially stopped but then left before authorities arrived on the scene.
Authorities said the incident is being investigated as a homicide.
‘Bye, Miami’
The heartbroken boyfriend of the deceased 23-year-old was cited by the Herald as saying that Logan fell out just as she was saying “Bye, Miami.”
“She was just being silly. She loved life,” her boyfriend, Ray Olden, told the Herald.
Olden said Logan’s friends called him “the moment it happened, saying that my baby was gone, fell out the window and was hit by a car. I started screaming and they were crying and said they had to call her sisters and that they were so sorry.”
UPDATE: FHP says woman who fell out of car window and was killed by a hit-and-run driver may have been in town for Spring Break and was heading to airport when the incident happened: https://t.co/giXIlAXL0G
— NBC 6 South Florida (@nbc6) March 18, 2019
‘A Silence In the Air’
The other women in the vehicle—24-year-old Trina Frazier, 23-year-old Aaliyah Frazier, and 23-year-old Kenyatta Burch—were distraught in the wake of the tragic accident, New York Post reported.
“They are devastated, as am I,” Olden told The Herald. “There’s just a silence in the air. It’s not real yet.”
“She brought energy and life,” Logan’s boyfriend told the paper. “She never looked at the bad. I was told I was a special man and she made me believe it. We had the next five years mapped out.”
“The way it happened, it’s not easy to accept a person going out like that. She was an angel,” Griffin said, WLS reported.
‘A Walking Angel’
Griffin told the news outlet Logan was one of 13 brothers and sisters.
“She was a walking angel to everybody and anybody she met. Her friends, family. Anyone will tell you,” Griffin told WLS.
“Her smile would brighten up a room. She didn’t have to say anything. She was always praying for people, letting them know that God was there if you need him. She was big on church.”
Logan worked as a mental health technician at a residence for people with developmental disabilities.
“We’re just trying to get her home now. Send her home beautifully and everything,” she said.
