Ohio mother dies trying to save her 6-year-old son from car theft

Alexa Stakely, a 29-year-old single mother, was killed in Ohio on Thursday while trying to prevent the theft of her car, which contained her six-year-old son.

The two suspects involved in the car theft are still at large.

The incident occurred around 1:30 a.m. in Columbus when Stakely had just finished her shift as a waitress and was picking up her son from a babysitter, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

She first took the child to her Honda CRV and left the engine running when she went back into the house to get some of his things, authorities said.

As Stakely was walking back to her vehicle, she saw it pulling out of the driveway with a person inside. She ran after the car and yelled for the driver to stop, but was struck by the vehicle and hit her head on the road.

The police later found the abandoned CRV a short distance away and the child sleeping unharmed in the back seat.

Stakely was found lying in the street by police with serious injuries. She was taken to a hospital where she was pronounced dead at around 8:43 a.m.

Witnesses reported seeing two men run past Stakely’s body and jump over a fence into a neighboring apartment complex during the incident, but police have not yet been able to locate them.

In addition to her night job as a waitress, Stakely also worked as a speech therapist in the preschool program at Winchester Trail Elementary School.

“Alexa had a passion for children and speech therapy,” the school district wrote in a social media post. “She was a great mother who was incredibly committed to her son. Ms. Stakely made a difference in the lives of the students and families she worked with and will be missed by so many in our community and beyond.”