The perfect Miami spring break trip ended in tragedy when a woman was crushed to death as she said her goodbyes to the city on her way to the airport.
Mariah Michelle Logan, a 23-year-old tourist from Chicago, went to Florida last week with three friends to celebrate one of their birthdays, according to the Miami Herald.
After three days of swimming in the Pacific and clubbing in South Beach, the women made their way back to the airport for a flight home on Sunday morning just before 4.45am.
They were minutes from Miami International Airport on an almost-empty State Road 112 when Logan stuck her head out the window of their rented Hyundai to enjoy a few final breaths of ocean air.
As she was ‘hanging out’ of the right rear window, Logan yelled: ‘Bye, Miami!’
Those were her final words before she was suddenly pulled from the car when it changed lanes.
She landed on the roadway and was crushed to death by a hit-and-run driver.
Mariah Michelle Logan, 23, was killed on spring break in Miami. On her way to the airport around 4.45am Sunday morning, Logan was hanging out of the rear window of a car yelling: ‘Bye Miami!’ when she fell onto the roadway and was struck by a hit-and-run driver
Police are searching for the unidentified male driver whose Range Rover struck Logan. Investigators say he stopped briefly but drove off before emergency responders arrived
Florida Highway Patrol is still searching for the unidentified male driving the Range Rover that was traveling behind the Hyundai before running Logan over.
Officials said the driver stopped briefly before taking off without leaving any information.
Investigators are looking into whether alcohol was a factor.
The case, labeled a traffic homicide, will be particularly difficult to investigate because state surveillance cameras posted along the highway and run by the Department of Transportation do not record images for later viewing.
FHP spokesman Alejandro Camacho said the cameras are only for livestreaming because ‘it’s too much data to record’.
Investigators have spoken to witnesses but their statements will not be made public ‘for at least 90 days’ pending the investigation, Camacho said.
The Hyundai Logan and her three friends had rented for their spring break getaway is pictured on State Road 112 after the accident early Sunday morning just minutes outside the airport
One of Logan’s devastated friends collapsed at a police officer’s feet after she was killed
While the witnesses have not been named, they likely include the friends who were in the car with Logan: 24-year-old Trina Frazier, 23-year-old Aaliyah Frazier and 23-year-old Kenyatta Burch.
Burch, Logan’s friend of 12 years whose birthday was the reason for the trip, told the Herald: ‘I lost my best friend, my sister. Blood cannot make us closer.’
The other two women declined to comment.
Logan’s boyfriend Ray Olden said the friends called him ‘the moment it happened, saying that my baby was gone, fell out the window and was hit by a car’.
‘I started screaming and they were crying and said they had to call her sisters and that they were so sorry,’ Olden told the Herald.
‘They are devastated, as am I. There’s just a silence in the air. It’s not real yet.’
He said of Logan’s final moments hanging out the car window: ‘She was just being silly. She loved life.’
Olden said he and Logan had been together for about a year, had a cruise planned for August and had even talked about getting married.
‘We had the next five years mapped out,’ he said. ‘She brought energy and life. She never looked at the bad.
‘I was told I was a special man and she made me believe it.’
Logan is pictured with her boyfriend Ray Olden, who spoke about the tragedy on Monday. ‘We had the next five years mapped out,’ he told the Miami Herald. ‘She brought energy and life’
Logan’s family and friends are now trying to raise money to bring her body home to Chicago
Logan lived in Gurnee, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and worked as a mental health technician at a nonprofit in Waukegan.
“She was a walking angel to everybody and anybody she met. Her friends, family. Anyone will tell you,’ Xylina Griffin, one of Logan’s 13 siblings, told ABC7.
‘Her smile would brighten up a room. She didn’t have to say anything. She was always praying for people, letting them know that God was there if you need him. She was big on church.’
Griffin said of her sister’s death: ‘The way it happened, it’s not easy to accept a person going out like that.
‘It was a birthday trip. They went to have fun. They did have fun. I saw so many pictures and things. It just didn’t end the way it was supposed to.’
Logan’s friends have now returned back home to Chicago and are working with her family to raise money to bring her body home.
‘As if dealing with this loss and heartbreak, now we have to figure out how to send her home. It’s expensive. It’s a nightmare,’ Burch said.
Logan lived in Gurnee, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, and worked as a mental health technician at a nonprofit in Waukegan. She leaves behind 13 brothers and sisters