A "incredibly dedicated" single mom was fatally run down with her own car by thieves who stole it as her 6-year-old son slept in the backseat, Ohio authorities reported.
Alexa Stakely, a 29-year-old speech pathologist, picked up her boy from a babysitter early Thursday morning in Columbus after finishing her second job as a restaurant server, police said in a statement posted on social media.
After strapping the sleeping child in her Honda SUV, Stakely started the engine, then remembered she needed to retrieve something from the sitter.
She left the motor running and met the sitter at the front door, then suddenly spotted her vehicle being backed out of the driveway of the townhouse on Blue Knoll Drive.
"Stakely was seen running toward her Honda when she was struck and thrown onto the pavement," police said.
Cops were called shortly before 1:30 a.m. and found Stakely lying in the street with traumatic injuries, including a severe head wound.
Cops also found her SUV abandoned nearby with her son unharmed and still sleeping inside.
Stakely was rushed to a local hospital and pronounced dead about seven hours later.
Two unidentified males were seen running past Stakely, jumping a fence and disappearing into the apartment complex after she was run down, police said.
Surveillance video recorded earlier in the morning also showed a group of males casing apartments on a nearby street, with two matching the descriptions of those who ran past Stakely, police said.
No arrests have been made and detectives were seeking additional video to aid their investigation.
Stakely worked at the Winchester Trail Elementary School in suburban Canal Winchester, where she was "passionate about children and speech-language therapy," and was known as "Ms. Alexa'' to her preschool students, the school said.
"She was smart and compassionate, and she cared so much about helping children develop their ability to communicate," the school said in a statement posted on its website.
"She was a great mom who was incredibly dedicated to her son. Ms. Stakely made a difference in the lives of the students and families she worked with and will be missed by so many in our community and beyond."
Stakely was a graduate of Ohio State University and lived in the Columbus suburb of Pickerinton, according to her online resume.
