Victim recovering, police searching for clues after Snohomish County hit-and-run



SNOHOMISH COUNTY -- A shattered passenger side mirror is the one clue that could help solve a Snohomish County hit-and-run.

The victim is home recovering. Now, he says he wants answers.

Early Sunday morning, Mike Schuetze says a driver in a gray Kia hit him from behind as he biked down '45 Road' in Arlington.

The impact was so hard, he said, it broke the passenger side mirror off the car.

Bleeding on the side of the road, Schuetze says he called his wife, who took him to the emergency room. Then they called the Snohomish County Sheriff`s Office.

“I got a pretty good lump and some lacerations on my elbow,: Schuetze says. :I have a severely broken, compound fracture of my left hand, left pinky finger. I`ve got a pretty good bruise on my hip and some lacerations on my knee as well.”

We're hearing about more and more hit-and-runs as the numbers creep up, says Washington State Patrol Sgt. Greg Heider.  He says hit and runs are the most difficult cases to solve because there`s often very little to go on.

And in the end, the worst thing a driver can do is leave the scene. It turns an accident into a criminal investigation.

“I don`t know how someone can live with that on their conscience. That’s what kind of bothers me the most,” says Heider.

If you have any information that can help Troopers locate the car or driver, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS, or use the P3 Tips App.