A driver’s side mirror sprayed with blue paint. A red jacket. A loud bang captured on a doorbell camera.
Those are some of the clues that led police to the driver accused of striking and killing Ann “Annie” Torres as she walked to her job at the Pendleton Pike Wal-Mart early on the morning of May 10, according to court documents.
Torres, described by her colleagues as “the sweetest person ever,” was reported missing on May 11 after she failed to show up for her shift two days in a row. Her sister decided to retrace her three-mile walk to work and found her by the road just north of the roundabout at East 42nd Street and North German Church Road. She’d been hit by a car, and the driver had fled the scene.
Investigators combing the crash site recovered multiple pieces of debris that belonged to a Cadillac STS manufactured between 2005 and 2011. The most crucial discovery was a side mirror: Torres had been struck on the left side of the road, but the mirror came from the driver’s side, indicating that the driver was going the wrong way. Detectives also noticed that while the outside of the mirror assembly was blue, its inside was tan. There was some blue overspray on components that were supposed to be clear, too, so investigators suspected they were looking for a car that had been painted blue.
Police learned that an automatic license plate reader regularly detected a blue 2005 Cadillac STS near the crash site. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles’ database, however, listed the car as tan.
In January 2026, a man who lived about 1.2 miles north of the crash site had registered the car under his name. Detectives tried to pay that man a visit at home on May 13. A family member answered the door and said that the man was at work. They went to his job, but learned he wasn’t on the schedule until the next day, according to court documents.
That same day, a person who lives near 46th Street and German Church Road shared their home surveillance footage with police. While the video didn’t show the crash site, it captured a loud bang at 2:16 a.m. on May 10. About 20 seconds later, the blue Cadillac drove into the frame. Its driver’s side headlight was missing and its windshield was damaged. A Jeep was following closely behind it.
Because surveillance footage from an apartment complex captured only two minutes earlier showed that the Jeep had been in front of the Cadillac, investigators believe the Cadillac’s driver struck Torres from behind while illegally passing the Jeep.
Working backwards, investigators found that the Cadillac and the Jeep had been traveling together on the east side of Indianapolis since at least 1:04 a.m. Across several pieces of footage, the Cadillac’s driver could be seen wearing a red jacket, police wrote.
Investigators contacted the Jeep’s owner, who said someone else had been driving the vehicle that night. The owner said they didn’t know anything about a crash, but told police that the person borrowing their car knew the Cadillac’s driver. The person who’d borrowed the Jeep declined to speak with police, according to court documents.
Police then received an anonymous tip: there had been a passenger in the Cadillac during the crash, and at the time, he’d been staying at a motel on North Post Road, the tipster said. Investigators reviewed motel surveillance footage that showed the man identified by the tipster getting into the Cadillac at about 8 p.m. on May 9, around six hours before the crash. The driver was wearing a red jacket.
On May 20, police went back to the Cadillac owner’s house. After police knocked “for several minutes,” the man opened the door wearing the same red jacket shown in surveillance footage, officers wrote. The man initially said his car was at the shop but then said it was in the garage. He declined to speak further without an attorney.
Investigators seized the car, which had “what was believed to be biological evidence from Ann Torres on the driver’s side.” Pieces recovered from the crash site matched damage on the car, police wrote, although the car’s internal data recording system gave no information about a crash.
Cellphone records for the Cadillac’s owner matched his car’s path of travel early on May 10, investigators added.
The Marion County Prosecutor’s Office charged the Cadillac’s owner with of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and reckless homicide on June 16, 2026. A warrant was issued for his arrest. At the time of publication, no defense attorney was listed in online court records.
Torres’ niece Stephanie Karwick told IndyStar that while her family is grateful that charges have been filed, she knows that the case is far from over.
“I know this is just the tip of the iceberg. They’ll have to serve the warrant, we’ll have to go through the court process,” Karwick said. “It’s a relief that somebody’s been linked to it…it’s a feeling of dread, too.”
Editor’s note: IndyStar uses discretion in naming people accused of crimes, considering the severity of charges and available information, among other factors. Suspects may not be named if ongoing reporting of the associated court proceedings is not immediately planned.
Ryan Murphy is the communities reporter for IndyStar. She can be reached at rhmurphy@indystar.com.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Charges filed in May 2026 hit-and-run of longtime Wal-Mart employee
Reporting by Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ryan Murphy, Indianapolis Star | USA TODAY Network
