Police Seek Suspects in Ohio After Mother Dies Trying to Prevent Car Theft with Son Inside

Police in Ohio are searching for two male suspects connected to the tragic death of a 29-year-old woman, Alexa Stakely, who was thrown from her vehicle while attempting to stop it from being stolen with her sleeping 6-year-old son inside.

Columbus police responded to an apartment complex around 1:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle. Upon arrival, they found Stakely lying in the roadway with traumatic injuries. She was pronounced dead at a hospital a few hours later.

Stakely, a single mother working two jobs, had just finished her shift as a waitress and was picking up her son from his babysitter’s home. After carrying her sleeping son to her Honda SUV parked outside, she left the vehicle running while she returned to the doorway to retrieve one of the boy’s belongings, ABC News 6 reported.

“As she returned to her SUV, it began to back out into the roadway,” police said in a news release. Stakely ran towards the vehicle but was struck and thrown to the pavement. The SUV was driven through the apartment complex before being abandoned nearby. Responding officers found the vehicle and recovered the sleeping child, unharmed. A GoFundMe campaign was created to help Stakely’s son.

Witnesses reported seeing two males running past Stakely as she lay in the roadway. They jumped a fence and disappeared into a neighboring apartment complex. Earlier that morning, a group of males had been captured on surveillance video looking into apartments in the area of Castenea Way. When confronted, they moved further into the complex and out of view. Two of the males matched the description of those seen at the complex where Stakely had picked up her son, police said.

Columbus police have yet to return a request for comment. Stakely, known as “Ms. Alexa” to her students at Winchester Trail Elementary School, was a speech-language pathologist working in the preschool program. The Canal Winchester Local Schools District, where she had been employed for five years, remembered her as “a great mom who was incredibly dedicated to her son.”

“Alexa was passionate about children and speech-language therapy,” the district said. “She was smart and compassionate, and she cared so much about helping children develop their ability to communicate. Ms. Stakely made a difference in the lives of the students and families she worked with and will be missed by so many in our community and beyond.” As the community mourns her loss, police continue to search for the suspects responsible for this tragic event.