TORONTO -- A 17-year-old girl who was killed in a hit-and-run in North York early Sunday morning is being remembered by family and friends as a humble person who “didn’t have a single bad bone in her body.”
Olivia Sarracini and her 19-year-old sister were both struck by a black SUV while crossing the street near Keele Street and Calvington Drive around 12:30 a.m.
Investigators said the vehicle was heading northbound on Keele Street when the driver stopped at a traffic light. When the light changed, police say the SUV entered the intersection, waited for a southbound vehicle to pass, then attempted to make a left turn, striking both pedestrians.
Toronto police told reporters that the vehicle fled the area heading westbound on Calvington Drive.
Julia Sarracini, 19, was transported to the hospital with leg injuries. Her younger sister Olivia Sarracini was pronounced dead at the scene.
“It’s an unbelievable nightmare,” a family friend identified only as Cindy said. “It’s just so sad for them and for everyone and I just pray for everyone.”
“It’s just horrible and I just hope that the person that was involved in the accident, they turn themselves in.”
Friends and classmates of Olivia Sarracini attended the scene on Monday, leaving flowers and mementos at the intersection where she was fatally struck.
They described the Grade 12 student as someone who was incredibly humble and kind.
“You don’t think it’s going to be somebody you’re supposed to graduate with in two weeks,” friend Ali Gargiulo said. “She was just somebody who lit up a room. It doesn’t matter how close you were with her, everybody has good things to say about her. She didn’t have a single bad bone in her body.”
“She was the nicest, kindest, most humble person. You couldn’t name anything bad about her,” Paula Quinto told CTV News Toronto.
Police released images of the suspect vehicle on Sunday, saying that evidence suggests “the driver must have felt” the collision.
“There would be substantial damage,” Sgt. Edmund Wong said at the time. "I would strongly recommend that the driver go speak to a lawyer and turn themselves into traffic services."
In a news release issued on Monday, police released updated photographs of the vehicle. They said the car could be a first generation GMC Terrain (2009-2017) with dark wheel rims.
Fil Folino was buying cigarettes across the street when the SUV barrelled into the pedestrians and says he is haunted by what he saw and heard.
“I’m standing there and you hear, you hear the pain, the screams the yelling and you can only relate as a human being,” he said.
“How do you put your head to sleep at night saying ‘I killed a little girl?’”
The family and friends of Olivia Sarracini are all calling on the driver to come forward and surrender to police.
“The whole family is angry that he left them like that,” a relative identified only as Ian told CTV News Toronto. “That guy should turn himself in. If he has any decency in him he should.”
“I don’t know how they can live with themselves after taking a 17-year-old’s life in front of her own sister,” Gargiulo said.
Police are asking anyone with information to contact investigators or reach out to Crime Stoppers anonymously.
With files from CTV News Toronto's Janice Golding
