‘She was just left like an animal’ Family seeks answers after fatal hit-and-run

By Anjali Patel

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    BUNCOMBE COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — A Western North Carolina family is mourning and searching for answers after a fatal hit-and-run in Buncombe County over the weekend.

At approximately 2 a.m. Sunday, July 31, the North Carolina State Highway Patrol (NCSHP) was dispatched to a hit-and-run crash involving a pedestrian on US-25 (Hendersonville Road) at Watson Road.

The pedestrian, identified as Melody Haynes Harrison, 50, of Arden, was walking north in the northbound lane of US-25 when she was struck by an unknown vehicle.

Harrison was pronounced dead on-scene, officials said.

“Her favorite thing about life was being a ‘grammy’ and her husband, they were two peas in a pod. Inseparable. She loved her family,” said Sara Scott, Harrison’s daughter.

Scott said her mother loved others and was loved.

“She was somebody I looked up to tremendously,” she said.

Scott said her mother struggled with her mental health from time to time. Scott said she reported her mother missing to the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office on Saturday evening, around 5 p.m.

“She was having some very odd mental health issues going on, was completely out of her mind,” Scott said.

She said tragedies in the family had been especially hard on Harrison, who was always caring for others.

“She was a caretaker,” Scott said. “She had a lot on her the last few years. We lost several family members, including both of her parents, one of which she had found herself. So I feel like it was a lot of stress and stuff put on her from losing those family members and it had all just came to a head.”

Nothing could have prepared Scott for the news she received from authorities early Sunday morning — that her mother had been hit by a car while walking on Hendersonville Road.

“When they were on the doorstep, my first thought was that they had found her and that they had taken her to the hospital,” she said. “But that’s not what it was and I can’t really explain what that feeling was like.”

Now, she and NCSHP are searching for answers. Scott wants whomever hit her to come forward.

“It hurts to know she was just left like an animal on the side of the road,” Scott said. “I would just hope that they would put themselves in that position if that was their family member.”

Scott said she mostly just wants an apology for leaving her mother. She hopes, above all, her mother didn’t suffer.

“Truly, no punishment is going to bring her back,” she said. “Yes, we do hope they get punished. I don’t want to say we don’t, because they did just leave her, they do deserve punishment.”

She’s urging folks in the community not to judge why her mother was out at that time of night, and to have compassion. She says mental health should be taken very seriously.

“I hope that it helps people realize that when somebody’s struggling, not to just let it go,” Scott said. “Instead of calling them crazy or calling them this and that, to get them help, to talk to them, to actually listen to them.”

While she says some have been cruel on social media in the wake of her mother’s passing, many have been kind, too. Some folks are commenting and sharing their thoughts about the type of woman her mother was.

“Everybody that knew her loved her,” Scott said.

A GoFundMe page created by friends had already raised $1,615 as of Tuesday afternoon to help the family with the cremation and other costs.

“It’s been wild to see, to be honest, the people that have wanted to help,” Scott said. “It just lets you know that there’s still good people.”

The N.C. State Highway Patrol is asking anyone with information that helps identify the vehicle or driver to call 1-800-445-1772.

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