South Bend Gulf War veteran killed in hit-and-run; family seeks healing and justice
SOUTH BEND — Daryl Payne was walking home the morning of Aug. 28 when he was hit by a passing car on Locust Road.
About 8 a.m., a driver passing by saw his body lying in a ditch and called 911. The 53-year-old Payne was pronounced dead at the scene. He was only a few blocks from home. Investigators with the St. Joseph County Fatal Accident Crash Team determined Payne was hit by a car traveling south that left the scene.
He died one week short of his 54th birthday.
The woman who found Payne’s body stopped by the scene on Sept. 5 as the family looked down to where Payne died. She cried as she tried to console the family for their loss.
“He was found right here where they cut the grass at,” Payne’s nephew, Marquise Payne, said, looking down at the space between the street and where beans were growing.
Payne was Marquise’s favorite uncle. They’d watch movies and play Mortal Kombat together. Payne was a comics fan — of both Marvel and DC — and would draw the characters. He was known as someone who loved to tell jokes and was always the life of the party.
“I like to wonder what would have happened if he stopped to tie his shoe or stopped to put out a cigarette. Would this have happened to him?” Marquise questioned.
Walking alongside Locust Road was normal for Payne. It was something he’d do every couple of days, his family said. It was also normal for him to walk home in the morning, having spent the night at a friend’s house, they said.
“He didn’t have a vehicle,” Marquise’s mother, Nathania Payne, said.
Payne was looking for a job. Nathania would usually drop him off at the bus stop on her way to work and he would call for a ride from the bus stop to get back home.
On Aug. 28, he never called for a ride home, she said.
Police officers showed up at Marquise’s door that morning, telling him that a body was found. Officers found Payne’s wallet, which led them to Marquise’s home, where he lived with his parents. Payne lived with them.
Marquise called his aunt, Denise Hunter. She called Marquise’s mother.
“At first, I thought I was in a dream,” said Marquise, who walked from his house to the crime scene to see if it was true. Seeing he couldn’t get through, he walked miles around the scene, he said.
Heartbreaking and devastating were how Hunter and Nathania described identifying Payne at the scene.
“The day that it happened, I was on my way to work,” Nathania said. “I got to the stop sign and the police had it blocked off. I took an alternate route. I didn’t even realize that it was my brother.”
Nathania parked at the trailer park, across the street from the scene, and waited until police gave her clearance to identify Payne. She knew it was him, even before she saw his body, she said.
More: 'He wasn’t here for the fame' family says of South Bend artist killed by hit-and-run
For Hunter, deep down she was wishing it wasn’t true.
“When we identified the body, it was real,” Marquise said.
“It’s like every morning you wake up and you feel like you’re in a dream,” Nathania said.
“It’s cloudy,” Hunter described.
“Once you really get yourself together, you realize, this is my reality and this is what we have to face today,” Nathania said.
The coroner couldn’t determine the exact time when Payne was hit. Nathania said he must have been hit sometime after 6 a.m., because she was told by 8 a.m., rigor mortis hadn’t set in and when they identified him, it didn’t look like he’d been there long.
An open investigation
Investigators don’t have a suspect or a vehicle description, the St. Joseph County Prosecutor’s office said on Aug. 30. As Payne's family looked down at the ditch a week later, they still don’t know who was responsible for his death.
“For that person to not stop and nobody to help…” Hunter said.
“Nobody said anything,” Nathania said.
“You’re a monster. What kind of person does that?” Hunter continued. “You know you hit him. They said 8 a.m., but it had to happen a little before that. So, I’m sure it was daylight.”
“They could have seen,” Marquise affirmed.
“And then you didn’t stop? You didn’t call anybody? He could still be alive,” Hunter said.
As unexpected as Payne’s death was, it left much of his family and friends with no chance to say goodbye. The last time they saw him was at another funeral — his mother’s — one month prior. Payne’s death hurts more because the family was still healing from losing their mother, Earlean Payne, who died on July 13 in the home she shared with her husband and daughter, Hunter.
Payne was one of five kids, the youngest boy. He was a sharpshooter in the Marines who served from 1988 to 1991, including in Operation Desert Storm. Hunter and Nathania are his younger sisters.
The family didn’t have the money for a burial, so Payne was cremated. Many weren’t able to see his face for the last time. The coroner allowed Payne’s 30-year-old son, Daryl Jr. who traveled from Gary, to see him.
Payne and his son had just rekindled their relationship before his death, Hunter said. He never got to meet his 2-year-old grandson.
His family agreed that they need to know who hit Payne in order to move forward.
“We would feel better,” Marquise repeated multiple times.
“Stuff happens,” Nathania said. “I understand.”
“If it was an accident,” Hunter interrupted her sister, “but it’s making me think it’s not an accident. They didn’t stop. Right now, I can’t forgive you because you left my brother to die and you didn’t stop.”
“You didn’t check on him, you didn’t call for help, nothing," Nathania said. "Because you were afraid…”
“Of what happened to you, but you had no regard for what happened to this person,” her sister finished her sentence.
“We’re not saying we’re not empathetic people,” Marquise said. “I understand it could have been an older woman. I understand it could have been someone with five kids in the back seat rushing to work or rushing to get their kids somewhere, anything. You never know what the person was going through. … It’s the fact that you didn’t stop and we don’t have that closure. … It’s a murder. It’s a homicide that we have to deal with in our family. It’s huge.”
Email Tribune staff writer Camille Sarabia at csarabia@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Family grieves Gulf War veteran killed by hit-and-run walking home
