Lakeland family hopes driver in deadly hit-and-run crash is arrested: 'He needs to pay'

DADE CITY, Fla. - The Florida Highway Patrol released new details Thursday in their investigation of a single-vehicle hit-and-run crash in Dade City in which the passenger died and the driver fled the scene.

According to investigators, witnesses told troopers they saw the driver, William Austin Bailey, 40, physically abusing the passenger in his pickup truck, Roxy Starnes, prior to the crash on October 14.

Troopers said Bailey then drove away, down Clinton Avenue in Dade City, lost control of his vehicle and hit a telephone pole and a fence. The accident killed Roxy, who family members said had been dating Bailey. Investigators said Bailey left his critically-injured girlfriend at the scene and hasn't been seen since the crash.

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"We're not, not as one. We're not a whole." said Crystal Martin, one of Roxy's four siblings.

"Thirty years, there's been five of us and now there's four," added Paula Parker, another sister.

Roxy was a mother-of-three. Her children, ages 6, 10 and 12, are staying with their grandparents. Including her two sisters who spoke with FOX 13, her other siblings, Shawna and Jesse, are just as desperate for answers.

Bailey has been in and out of jail since the early 1990s and the Polk County Sheriff's Office currently has four separate warrants for his arrest. Most of his charges throughout the years have involved drugs, grand theft or burglary.

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FHP now wants him arrested for leaving the scene of this accident.

"I just want him to be caught for what he's done to her, what he's done to her for the last five years. And he. He needs to pay for this," said Martin. "We love you, Roxy. We're so sorry, but we're going to get him. We're going to get him."

Anyone with information about Bailey's whereabouts is urged to call the Florida Highway Patrol.