Local

Mother of hit-and-run victim recalls daughter's loving spirit

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A mother opened up to Channel 9 after her daughter was killed in a hit-and-run Oct. 23 in southeast Charlotte.

According to police, Jasmine Kelly, 19, was traveling northwest in the right lane on Monroe Road near Timber Springs Drive around 8 p.m. when she struck 35-year-old Shannon Lynch, who was crossing the road.

According to investigators, Kelly failed to stop and left the scene.

Lynch was rushed to Atrium Health's Carolinas Medical Center on Wednesday; she died there two days later.

Channel 9 veteran crime reporter Mark Becker spoke with her mother, Sue Lynch, the week after her tragic loss.

“The phone would just ring, and I (would) just get, 'Hey, Mom!' That's what she'd say, ‘Hey, Mom!’” Lynch said.

(Shannon Lynch)

Lynch looked forward to those phone calls for nine years since her daughter left her home in Upstate New York for a life in Charlotte.

Officials said Shannon Lynch stepped off the curb when she was hit by the car.

“I received a call the night of the accident, probably about 1 o'clock in the morning,” Sue Lynch said.

A cousin in Pinehurst told her the horrible news that Shannon Lynch was in a hospital.

“We knew it was very serious,” Sue Lynch said. “I'd been in contact with the hospital.”

For days, She and Kelly Lynch, Shannon Lynch’s brother, were by her side in the trauma unit at Atrium Health, waiting, hoping, praying.

Doctors and nurses did what they could but were unable to save Shannon Lynch’s life.

Shannon Lynch was an organ donor.

“It was what my sister wanted,” Kelly Lynch said. “She knew that she couldn't use them anymore, but they can help other people, which is just the kind of person she was.”

“The hard part of this is we know it's her wishes and it's a very important gift to those people who need organs to carry on their life,” Sue Lynch said. “But it's so difficult for the families of the donator. Your life is devastated. You're crushed, but these families are out there, and they're so happy and elated and excited that their loved one has the ability to carry on their life when you're hurting so badly.”

(Kelly)

Officers said after the crash, Kelly filed a false police report saying her car had been stolen. She has been charged with felony hit-and-run and filing a false police report.

Becker also spoke with Lynch's friend and neighbor Jamison Wooley, who described her as a free spirit.

"I couldn't believe that it actually was Shannon until the report came in that it was her," Wooley said. "I was flabbergasted. I was taken aback."

He said they both lived in the same apartment complex, just a few blocks from where she was hit.

Wooley said she does not drive and may have been going to or from a bus when she was hit by a red Infiniti.

"Shannon is a positive free spirit," Wooley said. "She has a smile that literally lights up any room she walks in. I don't understand how someone could do that, if you hit somebody. It hurts and sucks that it had to happen to Shannon. It wouldn't wish it on anybody, but I just hate it for her."