SALISBURY, MASS. (WHDH) – The family of a Salisbury woman killed in a hit-and-run crash said they want justice in her name.
Rebecca Bartczak, 39, of Amesbury, died after being hit by a driver who fled the scene while she was riding her bike Friday, according to police. Deven Tanguay, 32, of Tewksbury, was ordered held without bail on charges in connection with the death.
Danielle Deveau, who said Bartczak and her bicycle landed in her front yard, said it was obvious Tanguay had struck someone.
“There’s no way he didn’t know he hit her, her light was so bright, the noise. There’s no way he didn’t know,” Deveau said. “How can you being a human drive off and leave somebody like that. I mean that’s somebody’s mother, sister.”
A fitness buff, the 39-year-old often biked to and from work, her father Michael Bartczak said. She made sure she was equipped with the right safety gear.
“He hit her with such force and it was so traumatic the whole front end of the car, and he even invented the windshield, and that’s where they found fragments of her and how they could match the vehicle,” he said through tears.
A nearby doorbell camera captured the truck police say Tanguay was driving moments before the crash. He was pulled over and placed under arrest about half an hour later.
“All he had to do was do something. Man up and say hey she died right there,” Bartczak said. “He just left her to die.”
Rebecca was a mother of two and a brand-new grandmother, Bartczak said. He said the family was devastated by her death.
“We are paying the price right now – a hurt and a loss. And I want him to know there’s so many people behind her,” he said. “He needs to pay the price.”
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