RAYTOWN, Mo. — On June 29, 2023, a man was killed in a hit-and-run crash near the intersection of Gregory and Blue Ridge Boulevards in Raytown, Missouri. Two years later, his fiancée is still looking for answers.
“It made me shatter inside. It hurt really badly,” Brianna Martin said, as she remembered the moment she heard the news.
She has been reliving that morning every day—and according to her, it doesn't get better.
“He was my best friend. I miss everything about him,” Martin said.
The worst part, she says, was telling his grandmother.
“Having to call her at 4 in the morning and hearing her scream,” Martin said.
“I just miss him every day,” his grandmother, Jean Thornton, said.
Kyle Clary lost his life when he was walking home in Raytown when a driver hit him at this intersection and drove off.
“I hope they can't sleep, and I hope they see his face every time they try to close their eyes,” Martin said.
Without answers, Martin says more could have been done by investigators.
“They didn't even send people out to ask about security until a week later,” Martin said.
We reached out to the Missouri Highway Patrol and the Raytown Police to learn more about the investigation, but we didn't hear back from them.
They say it is a never-ending nightmare.
“I miss him being able to be with his daughter, my great-granddaughter, every day,” Thornton said.
Kyle was 36 years old and a dad to three kids. With the youngest, he never had the chance to build memories.
“She only knows the picture of her dad right now. She doesn't get to live with him,” Thornton said.
“When everybody else's dad comes to the Father's Day events at daycare and picks them up from daycare every day…it's hard for her,” Martin said.
They still hope someone will come forward to give the family a sense of closure.
“I don't know if we'll ever know who did this and how they can live with themselves for doing it, but it goes on for us,” Thornton said.
For now, they make sure Kyle is with them, wherever they go. Their car has a sticker that reads, “In loving memory.”
Martin has a tattoo on her arm that shows her walking through “heaven’s door.”
“My daughter actually hugs this all the time,” Martin said.
The family says they are raising money to increase the reward offered through Crime Stoppers KC in hopes that someone with information will come forward.
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KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
