Family of Missouri Teen Killed by Deputy's Car Wants Answers

A teenager in Missouri died early Saturday morning after a sheriff's deputy accidentally struck her with his car. Persephone Berger, 16, was lying in the road in St. Francois County when the deputy hit her while responding to an emergency call. Now her family is demanding answers about why it took days for them to learn what really happened.

The deputy was called out around 3:40 a.m. because someone had reported a person lying in the road and not moving. When the deputy arrived, he saw a car with its hazard lights on and drove toward it. He did not see Berger on the road in time and hit her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

An early autopsy found that Berger's injuries matched what would happen if someone were hit by a vehicle. There were no signs that she had been hurt before the deputy arrived. Officials are still waiting on results from a toxicology report, which checks for substances in a person's body. It was not clear why Berger was in the road to begin with.

Berger's aunt, Kimberly Cabuchola, says her niece had snuck out of the house to go to a nearby party and was on her way home when she was hit. Cabuchola says the family was not told the truth right away about how Berger died. She says police told them Berger had been in a hit-and-run, meaning a driver hit someone and then fled. "They blatantly lied to us and said she was involved in a hit-and-run," Cabuchola told CBS News.

Cabuchola also said that only the coroner contacted Berger's father to tell him his daughter had died. The sheriff's office pushed back on the family's claims in a statement released Monday. Officials said the deputy never left the scene and told his supervisor right away. They also denied that any car chase was involved.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol will lead a separate, independent investigation into the crash. The sheriff's office is also still looking into why Berger was in the road before she was hit. A spokesperson for the Highway Patrol said he did not know exactly when or what the sheriff's office had told the family. The deputy who hit Berger has not been named, and his current work status is unknown.

Berger's obituary described her as a caring young woman who always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. She was also said to be passionate about singing in her school choir. Cabuchola said the family plans to keep pushing until they get the full truth. "We're not going to stop until they tell the truth," she said.