UNSOLVED: Lucas Shortreed - 10/10/08 - Alma, ON (SOLVED 2022)

March 2, 2020 SM

By: S.M.

Last Updated: 11.12.22   
Past updates: 04/23/20

SOLVED

In September 2022, Police laid charges in the death of Lucas Shortreed, 14 years after the 18-year-old was killed in a hit and run near Alma, Ont.

Who Killed Lucas Shortreed?

$50,000 Reward

Lucas Shortreed never saw it coming.

The car that struck the 18-year-old from behind on a dark country road - as he walked home to Fergus, from a party in Alma - left his lifeless body on the gravel, surrounded by shards of glass and vehicle debris.

Shortreed had spent the evening of October 10, 2008 at a house party in Alma - a rural town north of Elora, surrounded by sprawling farmland.

Sometime after 11 p.m., Shortreed left the party and began the 14 km walk to his home in Fergus, ON.

Minutes after midnight, someone driving a 1995-1997 White Dodge Neon or similar was travelling away from Alma, east along Wellington Road 17, toward Highway 6, when they struck Lucas.

Nobody knows if the driver stopped, even for a moment, to check on the teenager they killed. Instead of calling for help, the driver let Lucas die. He was found 20 minutes later by a passing motorist who called for help, but it was too late.

It’s certain the driver knew exactly what happened.

The damage to the car would have been significant. Parts of the windshield, right passenger window and front right fender would have destroyed by the impact of hitting the 230 pound teenager.

Maybe the driver was drunk.

It was Thanksgiving weekend, and in nearby Kitchener Waterloo, it was Oktoberfest. The annual event draws thousands of visitors to the area from across Ontario and the U.S. Although forensic investigation was able to determine the probable vehicle involved, around 8,000 White Dodge Neons were registered in Ontario at the time. Police went house to house, searching a radius of over 100 miles from Wellington County in search of the damaged car. But they never found the car, and nobody has ever come forward.

Someone was driving the car that night. Maybe there was a passenger.

Whoever did it surely panicked - a natural response, police said in a CTV News report on October 20, 2008.

But the driver fled, and they somehow hid the car. Maybe they brought it in for a quick paint job, or they repaired it themselves. Maybe they hid it in a barn or garage somewhere in the sprawling countryside around Wellington County.

Perhaps the driver was just passing through.

But the road where Lucas Shortreed was killed was not a frequently travelled road. It’s unlikely they would have made it far in the damaged vehicle without attracting attention. The vehicle would have been too damaged to make it across the border.

The person who killed Lucas Shortreed is likely from the area, or they have close ties to the area. Whether it’s the driver, a passenger, or someone who helped hide or repair the car, chances are there are people close by who know what happened, and who did it.

Twelve years of silence is long enough. If you know something, say something.

There is a $50,000 reward for information in the fatal hit and run case of Lucas Shortreed.