A Gary teen is wanted for fleeing after she allegedly hit and left a man to die on the side of the road Dec. 26.

Robelis Soto-Echevarria, 19, was charged Wednesday with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death or catastrophic injury to another person, a Level 4 felony.

She is not in custody, ordered held on a $3,500 cash bond.

A Hobart Police Officer radioed for paramedics at 7:12 p.m. on Dec. 26 after he spotted an older man “frosted over” and lying on his stomach on the side of Ridge Road.

When he examined him up close, the man was not breathing and his face was bloody. Paramedics who checked him out said there was nothing they could do.

The man was identified from his ID as Richard D. Hunt, 59, of Lake Station. Lake County Coroner’s Office Forensic Pathologist Dr. Zhuo Wang said he died of blunt force trauma from getting hit by a vehicle.

Investigators took bits of wreckage to a Honda dealership and learned it came from a Odyssey minivan between the years 2005 and 2010. Police got a tip that someone bought replacement parts at an auto yard in Lake Station.

Soto-Echevarria’s father pulled up in a red Chevrolet Silverado and was seen on camera buying parts. Police traced two Honda minivans to Soto-Echevarria’s mother.

Soto-Echevarria worked till 4 p.m. on Dec. 26, then went with co-workers to a Chinese restaurant on E. Ridge Road in Hobart before making plans to later go to a movie in Portage. She went home to change around 5 p.m.

License plate readers picked up one minivan near relatives in Camden, New Jersey, between Dec. 29 and Jan. 11.

Police got permission to see the damaged van in the family garage, which had a cracked windshield and passenger-side damage.

A witness said Soto-Echevarria didn’t see the man and “it was an accident.” They added that the family said they had an “emergency” and fled to New Jersey because they didn’t have money for a lawyer.

mcolias@post-trib.com