10 years, still no arrests for deadly hit-and-run in Catawba County

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — This week marks 10 years since an unsolved deadly hit-and-run crash in Catawba County.

On Aug. 18, 2014, John Morrison was walking to his girlfriend’s house along Highway 321 when he was hit and killed. On Tuesday, Channel 9′s Dave Faherty learned state troopers are still trying to identify the driver.

State troopers said despite the traffic on that stretch of the highway, it might have taken hours after the hit-and-run for Morrison’s body to be discovered.

His mother, Diane Bridges, still remembers the moment she learned her son had died.

“I was in a grocery store parking lot and — I still go to that grocery store and I still can’t go into it without thinking of the scream that came out of me,” she said.

Bridges said she was just 15 years old when she gave birth to John and made the difficult decision to give him up for adoption. But the two reconnected as adults and became very close.

Bridges said she had spoken to him before the deadly crash because he wanted help making a carrot cake for his girlfriend’s birthday.

Because he suffered from seizures, family members said Morrison was unable to drive and planned to walk to her home and surprise her. But he was found the next morning in the median not far from the Highway 127 bridge.

“John deserved better than that,” Bridges said. “Please come forward if you have done this, or if you know something, come forward.”

The highway patrol said it seized a van found abandoned near the crash scene but determined it was not involved in the hit-and-run. They also found car parts in the median but said that evidence came from a previous wreck there.

Bridges said the highway patrol is doing everything possible to bring justice for John and her family.

“Trooper Evans — wonderful state trooper. He told me he’d never give up on John’s case,” she said. “He says there’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about John.

“It’s been 10 years. Somebody knows something.”

At the time of the wreck, the state troopers even asked for surveillance video from big rigs that traveled in the area.

If you have any information about John Morrison’s death, give the North Carolina State Highway Patrol a call.

“He laid on the road for six hours after you hit him. He could have been saved if you would have stopped,” Bridges said.

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