Missouri high schooler killed after being hit by cop car then police allegedly framed death as hit-and-run

A Missouri high schooler was killed after being hit by a police car while authorities claimed she died in a hit-and-run accident, her devastated family claimed.Persephone Berger, 16, was lying in the road when she was struck by a St.

Francois County Sheriff’s Office vehicle at around 3:45 a.m.Saturday, KMOV reported.Berger was heading to her Park Hills home after she had snuck out to a party the previous night when a witness found her in the road and reported the discovery to cops. “While approaching [the scene], the Deputy did not see the [girl] in the roadway and subsequently struck [her],” Sheriff Jeff Crites said in a statement.It’s unclear why Berger ended up in the road but her dad, Jarred Berger, was initially told by law enforcement his daughter died in a hit-and-run, according to her aunt, Kimberly Cabuchola.A preliminary autopsy found her injuries were “consistent with those sustained from the responding Deputy’s vehicle,” authorities said.Cabuchola admitted “accidents happen” and revealed she wouldn’t have been angry towards the driver, who is around 23 and had worked for the department for around three months, if the sheriff’s office had been transparent.“All they had to do was say ‘Our officer accidentally ran over your child and she died,’” the bewildered relative told KMOV.

“That’s all they had to do.But no.”“To try and cover it up and to lie to our family? Why?  Why would they need to do that? We could have forgiven that officer.”However, Cabuchola ripped the sheriff’s office for being slow to contact Berger’s father.“The lies… not calling the right people in,” she blasted.

“Not reaching out to my brother for three days.That wasn’t an accident.“The only [person] that contacted him within that three-day [period] was the coroner, to tell us that she was so badly mangled that we needed to have a closed coffin for her.”“I want to go over to that county jail and tell them, you know.

I want ...