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Student arrested in hit-and-run after teacher notices damage to car

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – The teenager accused of a Halloween night hit-and-run that a left bicyclist dead alongside a northwest Allen County cornfield was arrested after a teacher reportedly found suspicious damage to the student’s car, according to an affidavit filed in Allen Superior Court.

Aaron Moser, 19, was arrested Friday on a preliminary charged of felony leaving the scene of a personal injury crash resulting in death for the death of 24-year-old Nicholas James Mruk along the 13000 block of Hand Road in Huntertown.

Officers and medics were called there just before 8 p.m. Oct. 31 on a report of a personal injury crash. When crews arrived on the scene, they found Mruk dead on the side of the road near a cornfield, according to an Allen County Sheriff’s Department report.

The Allen County Coroner identified Mruk, and found he died from blunt force trauma from being struck by a vehicle.

According to the affidavit, officers received a tip Thursday from an Indiana State trooper who said a teacher at Adams Central High School believed one of his students – Moser – was involved in the crash. The teacher reportedly found Moser’s silver Chevrolet Impala with damage. When he asked Moser about it, the teenager said he had hit a deer.

According to investigators, the teacher has a background in bodywork and knew the damage was likely not from striking a deer. From there, Moser’s teacher called the state trooper who passed the information to the Allen County Sheriff’s Department.

Officers arrested Moser on Friday after finding his 2000 Silver Chevy Impala. Officers had brought with them, pieces of the car they had collected earlier to confirm they had come from Moser’s vehicle, the affidavit said.

In an interview with Moser, he admitted that he had been driving “on a country road” in Allen County around the time of the crash and had been looking down at his cell phone, reading a text message when he struck something in the road. According to Moser, he stopped, got out of his vehicle, looked around and did not see anything.

He then got back into his vehicle and drove home, the affidavit said.