September 23, 2006
Information Needed in Connection With West Side Highway Hit-and-Run
Earlier this week, we reported that police had ID'd a victim of a fatal hit-and-run as Williamsburg resident Josh Crouch. And then we noticed that one commenter, Kris, had been with Josh a few hours before his death and noted that he was ID-less because he had left it at home. Another commenter urged Kris to contact the police, which she did:
I did contact the police and they forwarded to me crimestoppers, who told me that if I didn't know who hit him and didn't see him get hit then I "had the wrong number." I asked if there was someone else I should talk to and he practically hung up on me. If any of you have someone that I could relay this information to, please contact me at kristin.vieira(at)gmail(dot)com. I really want to get to the bottom of this.Here is a link to the NY Post story, and the number for Crimestoppers is 1-800-577-TIPS. We hope that people are able to come forward with more information.I have contacted the few people we were with that night and they said Josh had recognized other friends at the bar and had actually left before we did without saying goodbye. He must have left with these people. He knew one of the bartenders, too, and I am going to try and find out who was bartending that night and see if they can tell us who he left with. My friend checked her text messages and she had texted someone that we were leaving EO at 2:15am so something happened in that hour in two blocks that led Josh to that highway.
It disturbs me that the man at crimestoppers couldn't find the record for Josh's hit and run and that I acutally had to find the article in the Post myself and read it to him. If anyone can point me in the right direction, please email me.
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I'm sure someone will write about "Oh, Gothamist only cares about hipsters" because Josh Crouch was a Williamsburg resident.
Not that I can entirely head off that kind of discussion, but it makes sense that our readers might know of Crouch.
I only wish that when we write thing about unsolved crimes, more people would be able to contact the police or Crimestopper - like in the Chanel Petro-Nixon murder case.
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He was a great guy, always up, always with a diverse group of people.... always positive.
FYI, he worked 3 jobs, did his music and lived in a 3' x 6' cubby hole loft above the bathroom in a brooklyn warehouse apartment all while making plans to better himself. Not exactly a hipster.
i am one of josh's roommates.
he didn't own an actual ID, he had a passport which he left at home. he did have a wallet, however, and he did have it with him that night. but the police found no wallet on him.
i believe someone is tyring to find out more about the bartender. the one that josh knew supposedly didn't work that night... we are trying to find out more...
we need to find out what he was doing during those 2 hours, why he was on the highway, and WHY HE DIDN'T HAVE HIS WALLET when the cops found him. it seems that there's more to this than a hit and a run.
why havn't the cops checked the highway cameras?
also...
the ny post, of course, misspelled the name of the town his girlfriend and i are from. its, "chautauqua".
josh was from willmington, north carolina.
keep your comments of who josh was to yourself if you didn't know him, please.
we also have a number for the detective handling the case, but there's only so much he knows at this time as well. of course.
Hey everyone--thanks SO MUCH to the Gothamist for keeping up with this story. I really hope someone comes forward with information. I've been in touch with Josh's sister and his cousin because of the Gothamist, so cheers for getting us all in touch. It may not have happened otherwise.
I went to Employees Only to speak with the Sunday bartenders yesterday. Sadly, they had no information. I was really disappointed...
I e-mailed the Post, too, because they printed the wrong date for Josh's death and it was subsequently reprinted in various places incorrectly. If anyone has information about what happened, they obviously need to know the correct date. I urged the Post to reprint the story, but of course haven't heard back yet.
For those who don't know, Josh's band Mindspray is having a memorial for him this Wednesday at 8pm in Brooklyn. You can find information about it on their myspace page, www.myspace.com/mindspray. I think they are going to be selling t-shirts to raise money for his family to pay for the funeral--at least they mentioned something like that earlier this week.
Let's keep the energy going on this investigation.
www.myspace.com/mindsprayopenmic