"It's not fair," Shaliah Maddox, the victim's aunt, said. "It's not fair at all. She's 18 so young so full of life ready to live life and she never even had a chance to do that."
Lania Smith had just gotten home from school Monday. She was switching from one bus to another on her way to work at a restaurant in Calumet City, her aunt said, when a car hit her near Sibley Boulevard and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and kept on driving.
"My niece was right around the corner from me, five minutes away from here when she passed away and I couldn't be there to help her," Maddox said. "She died instantly right there. It's painful."
The oldest of five siblings, Lania was on the pom squad at Hyde Park High School, days from graduating, Shaliah Maddox said
"She was just always happy," Maddox said. "She was a go-getter and she was excited about graduating and going to prom and getting ready to go to nursing school."
All those dreams are now cut short.
Investigators have identified the vehicle involved as a 2007 red Chevrolet Corvette with a black top and an Illinois license plate number of FR 56003
.
But police have had no luck finding the driver.
"There's no way that someone could do something like this and still be out on the street living and living a regular life when you just took a life," Maddox said. "An innocent life, a baby girl that just starting life. How can you do that?"
This comes just nine days after another Hyde Park High School student, 15-year-old Violet Harris, was killed while riding her scooter with friends near 77th and Exchange. Her mother also said the driver never stopped in that crash.
Both families were left with no answers and no justice for these two young students.
"She deserves someone to speak on her name," Maddox said. "We need justice for Leah. She deserves justice."
Both cases remain under investigation. Dolton police are asking anyone with information to come forward. A GoFundMe has been created to help cover funeral expenses for Lania's family.