On the night of February 19th this year, Tyler police were dispatched to the 1200 block of North Broadway Avenue at about 7:40 p.m. about an accident involving a pedestrian. Dispatch told the TPD detective that one caller said the woman lying in the street was struggling to breathe. Upon arrival, Kelsey Raye Hise was found by two people who drove by and saw her in the street. The detective was told that the case was a hit-and-run, and that no witnesses or suspects had come forward. Hise would later die from her injuries.

While Investigating The Scene Police Found Evidence

According to KLTV, an arrest affidavit stated that a TPD sergeant found the glass insert for a driver’s side mirror and the part belonged to a 2006 to 2007 Toyota Camry. For awhile, this was all police had to go on until an anonymous tip came in.

The Tipster Said That 18 Year Old Chatiryn Butler Was The Driver Wanted.

Butler, who worked at Wally’s Gas Station on MLK Jr. Blvd. had allegedly told multiple co-workers and customers that she believed she had hit and killed Hise on Feb. 19. The caller also said Butler drives a silver 2007 Toyota Camry. Two Tyler PD detectives ran the car’s license plate and went to Butler’s residence in the 2900 block of Shiloh Road on Feb. 25. When they found the Camry, they noticed that it had damage in several areas, including a missing glass insert for the driver’s-side mirror. The detectives knocked on Butler’s apartment door, but no one answered. They also got no answer when they called her most recent listed phone number so they left a card for Butler.

Butler Eventually Called Detectives Back And Gave “intentionally vague and evasive" statements.

Butler allegedly told the TPD detective that a red truck had struck her vehicle on Shiloh Road and then said that the truck struck her while she was turning into a parking lot. Detectives also spoke to Butler’s co-workers at Wally’s Gas Station, and one of them told her that customers came in on Feb. 19 and said a woman had been struck by a vehicle on N. Broadway Ave. The customers also allegedly told the employee that Butler told them sometime after Feb. 19 that she believed she had struck Hise allegedly saying “She thought it was a man that she had hit, and she didn’t know they died.”

Butler’s co-workers told her she needed to tell police what had happened, but she refused.

The employees told the TPD detective that they were surprised by Butler’s demeanor because “she did not seem distraught and did not seem remorseful,” but another of Butler’s co-workers, said that Butler told her that she thought she had hit someone on Broadway Ave., but she didn’t see anyone in the street and drove off, the affidavit stated. The co-worker said Butler, who she considers a friend talked to her about it several times because she was “stressed and devastated.” Police would later hold the glass mirror insert up to the driver’s side mirror mount of Butler’s Camry and found that it was a match.

Chatiryn Butler, 18, was booked into the Smith County Jail on a felony accident involving a death charge on March 21. She was released later that day after she posted bail on a bond amount of $100,000.