'We were in our beds and our son was dying': Chatham family wants justice in fatal hit-and-run

Singleton’s parents said it’s difficult to think that around the time they were asleep, their son had been hit and was lying on the side of the road. They didn’t know anything was wrong until several hours after the crash, and now they want justice.

“I’m just wondering how someone could actually pass by a scooter tore all to pieces and no one wonder where the driver was,” said Singleton’s mother, Tabatha Singleton.

Tabatha Singleton said her son could have lay on the side of the road all day if not for the intuition of his family.

“We knew he was getting off of work, and we knew it would be late, and he didn’t show up at his grandmother’s house, and when he didn’t show up, that raised alarm,” Tabatha Singleton said.

Family members retraced Thaj Singleton’s route home from his job at the Pilgrims Pride Chicken Plant and found his moped on the side of the road.

“Just totally demolished, but Thaj was nowhere in sight,” Tabatha Singleton said.

Family members found the moped at about 8 a.m. Tuesday, but Highway Patrol troopers said he had likely been hit at about 3:30 a.m.

“We were struggling with the fact that we were in our beds and our son was just out somewhere dying, suffering,” Thaj Singleton's father, Curtis Singleton, said.

Authorities said Thaj Singleton had been hit from behind and the driver never stopped.

Investigators believe the suspect vehicle is an early 2000s model International Box Truck.

“I have no peace because they could’ve at least acknowledged him. He was a human being. He was my son who I loved. He was not a dog. He was not a cat or a possum or any kind of thing that lived out that runs across the street or anything that you can just leave on the side of the road. He was my son,” Tabatha Singleton said.

Anyone with information about the truck or its driver is asked to call the Highway Patrol's Raleigh Communications Center at 1-800-662-7956 or the patrol's Chatham County District Office at 919-742-2124.