Sister searches for answers in fatal Saugus hit-and-run

SAUGUS, Mass. — Mary Theo has never stopped thinking about her younger sister, Kathleen O’Neil, killed by a hit and run driver in Saugus on June 19, 2011.

“I can't let it go. I just can't. People say let it go, I can't,” Theo told me.

At about 1 a.m., Kathleen O’Neil was walking along the northbound side of Route 107 when she was struck.

The force of the crash threw Kathleen into the median where she was found.

At about the same time, about 50 yards further down the road, a Black 1996 Nissan Pathfinder flipped over and struck a tree.

The people in the vehicle tried to get away, one of them even grabbed the license plate.

Saugus police interviewed the owner of the vehicle and the passengers, but have not been able to link the Pathfinder to Kathleen’s death.

“The only thing that was found on my sister's body, besides her belongings were lens pieces of a vehicle that they couldn't match up. There was no paint or anything of that nature. All they could say was it was a large vehicle with heavy front end damage,” Theo said.

With no other solid leads, Mary Theo is trying her best to keep her sister’s case in the public’s eye.

I interviewed Mary in 2014 about Kathleen’s case. I talked to her again today after she reached out to me.

The pain of her sister’s violent death has never gone away.

And neither has her determination to get answers.

Mary is hoping someone will finally call police and identify the hit and run driver who took Kathleen O’Neil’s life.

“It would give me peace (if somebody called). I'd be able to go to the cemetery where my mother and my sister are buried and say, ‘You have peace now,’” Mary Theo said.

Saugus Police consider the O’Neil investigation open and active. If you know who was driving the vehicle that killed Kathleen O’Neil, contact Saugus Police at 781.941.1105.