MELBOURNE, Fla. — A woman accused of hitting a man in downtown Melbourne on Christmas morning, 2023, then speeding off, went to great lengths to hide from police, a newly released report said.
That included an effort to have the heavily damaged car towed away from a parking lot as investigators arrived.
26-year-old Tekayiaha Hardy is charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death for the killing of 23-year-old Andrew Sofranko, mere hours after the man served as Best Man at his father’s wedding.
Sofranko was crossing South Harbor City Boulevard when he was hit. The report said Hardy had a green light at the time of the crash.
Investigators said four witnesses saw the crash, including one who captured it with a dashcam. They used license plate readers to track the car to an apartment complex parking lot about a mile away from the scene, where Hardy lived at the time.
Surveillance video showed a woman running away from the car, the report said.
Moments after they arrived to process the car and tow it back to the impound lot, officers said a different tow truck showed up to take the car as well.
The driver, who didn’t keep records, said someone named “Takia” arranged for the tow, and later disclosed he was paid $80 by Hardy’s mother, the document said.
Efforts then turned to collecting Hardy’s DNA to match it to evidence found in the car. Investigators said they repeatedly tried to track her down without any success.
However, their luck turned when a repo driver showed up at their impound lot intending to take Hardy’s car. The report said the driver disclosed that the used car lot that sold Hardy her car had installed a hidden GPS tracker in case it ever needed to be repossessed.
Police said they were able to trace the car’s location history through that tracker and match it to the location of Hardy’s cell phone, confirming she was behind the wheel.
Hardy, who has a prior conviction for driving without a valid license, was being held on a $100,000 bond.
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