Loved ones grieve cyclist killed in College Hill crash that driver fled

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - Four days after the crash that killed him, the loved ones of 37-year-old James Towns are devastated.

“This is something you never expect, ya know?” Yvonne Abernathy said.

Yvonne and her husband, Meakofi, were Towns’ foster parents.

“James was quite a guy,” Meakofi said. “Was a very nice guy, very quiet.”

The couple are grieving his death in a hit-skip crash Saturday morning in College Hill. Police say it happened around 2:30 a.m. in the 1300 block of West North Bend Road.

Towns was riding his bike when he was hit by an unknown car whose driver police say fled the scene.

The 37-year-old died at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.

Police are still looking for the driver.

Yvonne and Meakofi say Towns was on his way home from work when the crash happened.

“And to think that someone would hit a person like that and keep going,” Meakofi said. “I just really hope they find him.”

Towns went to live with the Abernathys when he was 10. He stayed with them until he was 18.

“We would take him to the bookstore and we would tell him, ‘James, you can get three books,’” Meakofi recounted. “But he always tried to finagle five books out of us.”

Recently Abernathy showed his continuing love for his former foster parents.

“For Mother’s Day, he came by with a gift,” said Yvonne. “And for Father’s Day, he came by for a gift for my husband.”

The Abernathys draw comfort from having gotten to spend some of their lives with him.

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash.

Any witnesses to this crash are asked to contact the Cincinnati Police Department’s Traffic Unit at (513) 352-2514.

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