[Amy]

ST. CHARLES COUNTY • A man whose remains were found scattered along Highway 370 Thursday was heading home from a tavern in the New Town area of St. Charles and walking from his broken-down pickup when he was hit by a vehicle, authorities said.

The man was identified as Shawn Christopher Daugherty, 35, a boat fiberglass repairman and bachelor who lived in St. Charles. The vehicle that hit Daugherty did not stop. Authorities are seeking the driver but said they don’t have much to go on.

Authorities believe Daugherty’s 1996 Dodge pickup broke down about 2 a.m. Thursday on westbound Highway 370 near Truman Boulevard because the truck was found stopped along the shoulder about a half-mile from where his remains were found.

A driver called police about 2:15 a.m. and reported seeing someone who appeared to be trying to cross the highway. Troopers checked the area but didn’t see anyone, said Highway Patrol Sgt. Al Nothum.

Police first learned something was amiss about 4:30 p.m., when a trooper was driving west on the highway and noticed something in the road that looked like body parts. She investigated, and confirmed that what she saw was human remains, Nothum said. She immediately closed the highway as troopers began investigating.

“Obviously, we’re looking for the vehicle that struck him,” Nothum said Friday.

Several people told the Post-Dispatch that they had driven through the area on Thursday and saw remains.

“I saw what I thought was the worst animal hit I’d ever seen,” said Beth Pierce, 51, of Old Monroe, who drove by the bloody scene twice on Thursday. “The debris was everywhere. It never even crossed my mind that it was anything other an animal. It’s very disturbing. Very disturbing.”

Another driver, Brittney Kraemer, 28, of St. Charles, said she drove by with her husband about 12:30 p.m. Thursday.

“We both thought it was a semi that had hit a deer,” Kraemer said. “We didn’t really think anything of it.”

Realizing now the remains were human, she said she was still surprised they wouldn’t have been spotted by the trooper checking the initial report of a person on the road.

“Even at night, there’s no way you would have missed that,” Kraemer said.

Daugherty was the oldest of five siblings and a son of Jerry Daugherty, a former Portage des Sioux alderman and later an emergency management director for that village and Lincoln County.

Jerry Daugherty said he was told his son’s truck broke down as he was heading home from a tavern in New Town where he had watched the Cardinals game with a couple of friends the night before. He said his son could not have been more than a mile from his house in St. Charles when he was hit.

He said his son ran an independent fiberglass business, fixing boats stored along the Missouri River. He said his son was single and had no children but “lived for his nine nieces and nephews,” Jerry Daugherty said.

A photo of two of his young nieces was in a wallet state troopers picked up off the highway, Daugherty said. The patrol brought him the wallet Friday.

Daugherty said his son also was a guitarist in a rock band that played bar gigs around town; he was a “health nut” who loved playing hockey, biking and running 5K and 10K races with his sister, and shooting pistols at his grandmother’s farm in Lincoln County.

“He’s a caring person,” his father said. “He’d help anybody.”

Jerry Daugherty says he suspects the driver who hit him must have realized he or she hit something and just kept going.

“I’m hoping whoever hit him owns up to it,” his father said.

SOURCE

[Amy]

That must have been a disgusting sight. Chunks of human and blood everywhere.

[Morbid75]

That happened in NC a few years ago. This autistic teenager left the house in the middle of the night. It was really rainy and he jumped off an overpass. They did find the driver of an 18 wheeler that initially hit him and he thought it was a deer. He was run over a lot before anyone realized. They shut the highway down for hours. My husband saw crime scene pics and said it was really bad.

[winvens]

How awful.

[vipersna]

I wonder how many people after reading that are going outside to scrub off their grills??

[BryanXavier]

Originally Posted by morbid75 ↗

That happened in NC a few years ago. This autistic teenager left the house in the middle of the night. It was really rainy and he jumped off an overpass. They did find the driver of an 18 wheeler that initially hit him and he thought it was a deer. He was run over a lot before anyone realized. They shut the highway down for hours. My husband saw crime scene pics and said it was really bad.

I was thinking the same thing - a trucker assumed it was as deer that he'd hit and kept rolling.

If I heard the news and suspected that it might have been me that hit the man, I think I'd take a thorough look to see if there were any remains on my rig that I was sure was human. If not, I'd let it pass.

Maybe....

[Pyramid_Head]

That's sad, poor guy.

[Spiffyfable]

That actually happens more than you think

It happened here in KC about 10 years ago. A women did a suicide dive off of a bridge onto a HWY and I guess after awhile, people just assumed the bloody pulp was that of a deer or dog. I believe her license stated that she weighed 160 lbs. but the corpse recovered was closer to 60 or so. The Medical Examiner stated something like, "Don't report any strange corpse bit pieces on your car unless they are bigger than a silver dollar". It seems that dozens if not Hundreds of cars took home a piece of her

[Azimuth]

This is not that surprising. Not at all, really. You're not exactly expecting to see a person in front of your car on the freeway, you'd expect some other animal, especially in the dark

It is awful that no one came forward though. I would think that once you hit them, THEN you'd know it was a person, right? Maybe?

[vagabond]

Probably happened so fast the driver didn't realize it was a person, if it was a semi that hit him. Really a shame. I'm surprised he couldn't see the vehicle coming, though.