Mother In Mourning After Hit-And-Run

A mother in mourning is pleading for answers in the hit-and-run death of her teen daughter.  News On 6 reporter Dan Bewley sat down with her and a friend who witnessed the accident.

Crystal Strange was a 17-year-old with her sights set on a bright future.  Friday night her life ended as she was helping a schoolmate with a class project.           

"My daughter was beautiful. She was sweet, she was smart. She was everything a mother could ever want," said Crystal's mother, Linda Strange. "She was my sunshine and somebody took my sunshine away. I don't know how anybody could be so cruel."

Ryan Lane was with Crystal that night.

"She was very ambitious and very intelligent. Probably one of the most intelligent people I've ever met," said Lane.

The 17-year-old was a student at Bacone College. She had dreams of working in print journalism and loved taking photographs. Friday she was helping Lane, posing as his model in the middle of Texanna Road, south of I-40. Around 8:30, a white min-van came over the hill. Lane says as Strange moved into the opposite lane as the van, it began to drift towards her, he says it never slowed down.

"They went directly into her, they didn't just glance her," said Lane. "It just kept going, it didn't even slow down."

Lane says Strange was still alive as she was taken to the hospital, but died a short time later, leaving behind a younger sister and countless friends and family who hope someone, somewhere finds the driver of the van that ended a young woman's life just as it was it was starting to shine.

"I say God will take care of them. They may not pay for it on this earth, but their conscience will bother them and God will take care of them, there is judgment day," said Linda Strange.  

Investigators say the only information they have of the car that hit Crystal is that it is a white Chevy mini-van with tinted windows.

Anyone who has information is asked to call the Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Crystal Strange's funeral will be held Tuesday at the Bacone College chapel.

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