'She didn't deserve to die like this,' niece says of woman, 81, killed by BMW SUV

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office and Hackensack police are searching for the driver of a 2013 or 2014 black BMW X5 SUV with tinted windows similar to this stock image. The driver is believed to have been involved in the hit-and-run death of an 81-year-old woman on Polifly Road last Thursday around 7 p.m. 

Driver fled scene, leaving parts 

of damaged vehicle behind

By VICTOR E. SASSON 

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- "The victim was my aunt," a woman said on Instagram in reaction to investigators who posted a photo of the type of SUV that killed an 81-year-old woman crossing Polifly Road last week.

"She didn't deserve to die like this," said the woman, who uses the Instagram handle of @lovaofmnms.

Four days after the hit-and-run death on a darkened 4-lane road that leads to the entrance of Route 80, investigators still haven't released the identity of the victim.

Seeking that information today, I called Maureen Parenta, a spokeswoman for the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office, and Capt. Nicole Foley of the Hackensack Police Department, but neither returned my calls.

READ: Penalties for killing a pedestrian

 don't act as a deterrent

READ: Family members remember

 Lillian J. Holmes

Where did accident happen?

An initial online news report said the woman was killed crossing "Polifly Road near Standish Avenue when a dark SUV with tinted windows struck her and kept going shortly after 7 p.m." last Thursday.

A news release the following day from the Prosecutor's Office said the pedestrian was struck "on Polifly Road, between Sutton and Marvin avenues," a block or so from Standish.

There are no painted crosswalks or traffic signals on those three blocks of Polifly Road.

A second vehicle struck the woman, but that driver remained on the scene, investigators said.

It was not known if the woman had patronized the CVS on the block between Sutton and Marvin or was walking to an apartment building across the street.

When I visited the scene on Sunday night around the same time of the hit-run death, the 4-lane street was dark, illuminated by street lamps, but a city official later complained a fourth street lamp was dark.

'My heart is aching'

A woman who lives near the accident scene and read a news account commented on Hackensack Daily Voice's Facebook page:

"My heart is aching for the family," Ginger Thomson said. "I pray it is not someone I know."

"It was very scary to see the aftermath of the accident," she said. "I live just a few feet from the accident and was able to see the [victim's] body from my window very clearly in the street."