Police: SUV hit homeless woman found dead in Bloomington ditch

Police: SUV hit homeless woman found dead in ditch

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (WISH) — A 37-year-old homeless woman found dead in a roadside ditch on Sunday afternoon had been hit by an SUV a day earlier, Bloomington Police Department said Friday.

Officer on Sunday afternoon found Jade Sanders lying in the ditch in a patch of brush. An autopsy Wednesday found Sanders, from Bloomington, died from injuries consistent with being struck by a vehicle, police said in a news release issued Friday. The Monroe County coroner had earlier reported Sanders was experiencing homelessness.

Bloomington Police Department says a passenger in a car traveling south saw the body in a ditch about 3:20 p.m. Sunday off the 3200 block of South Walnut Street Pike. That’s in a residential and forested area on the city’s southside between East Rhorer Road and East Winslow Road.

Police later found surveillance video showing a large, dark-colored SUV about 6:45 p.m. Saturday was southbound on Walnut Street Pike.

People in the area at the time told investigators a large, newer-model SUV had pulled over at the intersection of South Walnut Street Pike and East Burks Drive after the woman was struck.

The release added, “A passerby reported that they stopped and spoke with a middle-aged, dark-complected (cq) man dressed in a suit that was walking around the SUV who said he believed he had just struck a deer.”

Police say the SUV is believed to have front-end damage.

Anyone with information about the SUV or the driver of the SUV was asked to call Detective Chris Scott at 812-349-3382.