Police responded to the area of Sheridan Road and Greenwood Avenue at about 5:40 p.m. and found a badly injured woman lying in the roadway.
The woman, a Zion resident in her 40s, was transported to a hospital where she later died. Her name has not yet been released.
Investigators believe the woman was crossing Sheridan Road just south of Greenwood Avenue when she was struck. The vehicle appears to have been going southbound when it struck her in or near the median, police said.
Investigators say there were no witnesses. Despite it being a busy crossing near both a restaurant and a gas station, there does not appear to be any surveillance footage of the hit-and-run crash.
Debris left behind by the vehicle is one of the few things detectives have to go on at this point.
"Some of the information we have currently is that we are looking for a black sports utility vehicle," Waukegan Police Chief Wayne Walles said. "But anybody that was involved with or may have been a witness, I do encourage them to call us."
The Waukegan Police Department's Traffic Division and Criminal Investigations Division are investigating the crash.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Waukegan Police Department's Traffic Division at 847-599-2630.