The Daily Populous Friday July 12nd, 2024 evening edition
Authored by abc6onyourside.com and submitted by indigolr

A mother died after trying to stop a thief from stealing her car while her young son was still inside.

Police were called to the intersection of Annual Drive and Blue Knoll Drive on the far Southeast side at 1:27 a.m. on Thursday.

29-year-old Alexa Stakely was picking up her 6-year-old son from a babysitter, police said. At one point, she placed the sleeping child in the car while it was running and went back to the home to grab something she forgot from the babysitter.

Police said she returned to her car and saw it beginning to back out into the roadway. People heard her screaming for her child.

Stakely got on the hood of the car, trying to get it to stop, and was thrown off when the suspect started driving erratically, police said.

She suffered a serious head injury after falling off the car and was rushed to Mount Carmel East in critical condition, where she later died.

When police got to the scene, officers discovered the car in the same parking lot, with the child still asleep inside. The suspect had left the scene.

WSYX learned that Stakely was incredibly dedicated to her son, and she worked two jobs to provide for him.

She was leaving one of those jobs to pick him up when she died.

Stakely was known as "Ms. Alexa" to so many.

The 29-year-old graduated from OSU. She was a speech pathologist for Canal Winchester Schools.

The district's Facebook page remembering her has hundreds of shares. Many commenting how Stakely helped their kids. Most in disbelief she’s gone.

She had been at Winchester Trail Elementary for five years.

District leaders say Stakely was smart and compassionate. She cared a lot about helping other kids thrive in academics and was very dedicated to her 6-year-old.

That dedication reached a whole new level when she jumped in front of a car to save her son.

According to detectives, two males were seen running past Stakely, who was lying in the roadway. They then ran north towards the abandoned Honda and continued running northbound. They jumped a fence and disappeared into a neighboring apartment complex.

Earlier that morning, surveillance video caught a group of males looking into apartments in the area of Castenea Way. When confronted, they proceeded eastbound further into the complex and out of view. Two of these males matched the description of the males who were seen running past Stakely after she had been struck, police said in a media release.

Detectives are asking anyone with video of the incident itself or persons loitering in the area to

"We always tell people, 'Don't leave your car running ... don't leave kids in your vehicle unattended,'" Columbus Police Sgt. Joe Albert said. "This one, I'm not gonna armchair quarterback a mother trying to protect her son. It's just a tragic incident all around."

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Detective Lemmon at (614) 645-2558 or RALemmon@ColumbusPolice.org or to call Central Ohio Crime Stoppers at (614) 461-TIPS (8477). Detective Lemmon is the lead detective on the case and is being assisted by Detective Johnson.

Sprinkle_Puff on July 12nd, 2024 at 08:19 UTC »

Why does the world strip us of people that devote themselves to others so selflessly, and leave us with scum that do nothing but pollute and corrupt us

Savior-_-Self on July 12nd, 2024 at 07:39 UTC »

> Stakely was incredibly dedicated to her son, and she worked two jobs to provide for him.

> She was leaving one of those jobs to pick him up when she died.

Jesus christ this is fucked up

Modsaremeanbeans on July 12nd, 2024 at 06:25 UTC »

I do not need to be this pissed off and sad at this time.