CANAL WINCHESTER, Ohio — The family of a 29-year-old mother who was killed trying to save her 6-year-old son from inside her stolen vehicle is now remembering her legacy.
The Columbus Division of Police released body-camera video showing the moments when officers found the boy in the car. Due to the age of the child and the sensitivity of the case, 10TV is choosing not to air that video.
“[She] was an amazing mother,” said Alexa Stakely’s younger brother, Hayden Swartz.
Stakely was picking up her son from his babysitter. She forgot something inside, and when she left the car, police say thieves tried to steal it with her sleeping son inside.
Stakely jumped on the hood of the car to stop the thieves but was thrown from the car and died from her injuries.
“I have no doubt that she would do that for anyone, honestly, for any of us if we were younger,” Swartz said.
The Ohio State graduate was a single mom and worked multiple jobs, including working as a speech-language pathologist at Winchester Trail Elementary School in Canal Winchester.
“She was an extremely amazing person who had a heart for kids and teaching kids, being in SLP and was just brilliant about her work,” Swartz said.
Swartz is hoping the suspects will turn themselves in.
“Do what is right. Justice needs to be served and people need to learn their lesson that there's law in this community and in this world,” he said.
Where the investigation now stands
Columbus police say just before the theft, a group of men were seen looking into apartments but ran from the area. Police say two of those men were the ones who attempted to steal Stakely's car.
“It was very frustrating and my heart goes out to her family and everyone involved. I'm a parent myself and any parent in that situation would have done the same exact thing,” said Sgt. James Fuqua.
Police are asking for neighbors in the area to check their home security cameras to see if they caught anything on video.
“We believe there are multiple involved. We know that between the multiple suspects that we believe were involved, they absolutely know what they did. They know publicly at this point what has happened,” Fuqua said.
Police are asking anyone who may have video of the incident or anyone loitering in the area to send it to them here or scan the QR code below.
