(La Porte County, IN) - An arrest has been made for the death of a homeless individual who was struck by a fleeing motor vehicle in La Porte County.

 

Troy Slack, 48, has been charged with Leaving the Scene of a Fatal Crash. He was being held on $20,000 bond after being booked Tuesday into the La Porte County Jail.

 

Keith Eastwood, 67, was found dead at about 6 a.m. on Monday on the shoulder of U.S. 6 by a motorist outside Westville.

 

According to court documents, the part number from a passenger side mirror recovered from the accident scene revealed itself to belong to a 2007-2014 GMC vehicle product. A nearby Flock camera on U.S. 6 at the La Porte/Porter county line, capable of reading license plates and recording information from all passing vehicles, was later searched.

 

Per authorities, a westbound GMC Yukon passed the camera about five hours before the body was discovered, along with another Flock camera roughly 15 minutes later on U.S. 6 at Indiana 149 in the village of South Haven near Portage.

 

The next day, police reportedly discovered that no other Flock cameras nearby detected the vehicle after that period, which led to a search of the immediate area.

 

A 2007 GMC Yukon missing its passenger side mirror was later found parked outside a home about 30 minutes later. The vehicle also had fresh damage consistent with hitting a person while traveling in the same direction.

 

Police knocked on the door of the residence and were told Slack was sleeping upstairs. From there, according to court documents, Slack woke up, came downstairs, and told his mother “I am in trouble.” He also told officers that  Eastwood was in the roadway and he tried to avoid him before panicking due to not having insurance or a license plate on the vehicle he was in the process of purchasing.

 

In addition, he claimed to have learned that the man he struck died after reading a social media post about the collision.

 

He could face anywhere from a 2 to 12-year sentence on the Level 4 felony charge.