HOUSTON – Editor’s note update: This victim has been identified as journalist and transgender activist Monica Roberts. KPRC 2 has learned from Houston police that while it initially appeared that she may have been the victim of a hit-and-run, an autopsy by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences determined she suffered a medical emergency and was not the victim of a hit-and-run crash.
A search is underway for a suspect after police said a woman was hit as she took out the trash in southwest Houston Tuesday.
Police said the incident happened in the parking lot of an apartment complex located on Elmside near Meadowglen just after midnight.
According to investigators, they are now reviewing surveillance video as they search for the driver who hit the woman, who has been identified as 58-year-old Monica Katrise Roberts. Police said there were no witnesses.
De-Neisa Siler said that she was surprised to see crime scene tape when she pulled up to her apartment complex last night. She said she was devastated to learn that a woman had been hit and killed by a vehicle near the dumpsters at the apartment complex.
“It is just mind-boggling to know that you could do something as simple as trying to take out the trash and never make it back home,” said Siler. “It is sad and senseless.”
According to HPD, there are no witnesses or surveillance video from the scene. Siler said that she and other neighbors are anxious to get answers.
“I just pray she doesn’t have kids or nothing or nobody that was waiting for her because nobody even knows who it is,” Siler said.
