PARKER, Colo. — A Parker family is pleading for help after a hit and run driver killed a beloved member of the community.
Edward “Chuck” Vogel, 62, was riding his bike around 6:30 a.m. on the Fourth of July when he was hit. The crash happened in front of the Parker Core Knowledge Charter School at 11661 Pine Dr.
The driver of the car took off. Douglas County deputies found the suspect’s car — a silver Kia sedan — abandoned a few blocks away, but the driver has not yet been identified.
The victim’s wife, Teri Vogel, said her husband loved life, the outdoors, his family and his community. He was a volunteer at the Parker Task Force Food Bank, where friends describe him as an amazing individual.
Teri said she wanted to share her story to ask for help finding the driver because that’s what her husband would want.
“If anyone would have done anything to his family, he would be beating the bushes, which is why I will stand strong for him and do this for him and for my son, for our family and future grandbaby he will never get to meet,” Teri said. “Whoever can hit someone on a bicycle and leave the scene and have no regard for that human life needs to be found and dealt with accordingly.”
Investigators with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office are looking for video from home surveillance systems or for witnesses who may have seen something and not yet reported it.
Teri wants people to think back to the morning of July Fourth and try to remember if they saw anything in the area that could help.
If you have any information, you can call Metro Denver Crime Stoppers at 720-913-STOP (7867). You can remain anonymous and may be eligible for a reward.
Teri says finding the driver won’t bring her husband back, but it may bring her some amount of peace. She wants justice for her husband, who was such a giving person.
“Even in his death he continues to give because he was an organ donor. We’re able to pay it forward, he will live on through others,” she said.