Kristen Grindley, a University of Washington graduate, was discovered seriously wounded by a bystander on the Pullman-Albion Road on November 11, 2009. Richard Pasma, her ex-boyfriend, was named a person of interest when evidence led to him. Investigators suspect Grindley was thrown from the truck Pasma was driving. Grindley, who suffered catastrophic injuries in the accident, can now walk and speak and is on the mend.
Dateline: Secrets Uncovered will investigate this hit-and-run case in an episode titled The Mystery on Albion Road. The episode will be shown on August 10 at 8:00 p.m. EST.
The episode’s summary is as follows:
“A young lady is discovered almost dead in the middle of the road; with little evidence to go on, police expect to learn what occurred from the victim herself, but she can’t recall.”
Continue reading to learn more about the case.
Here are five terrifying facts regarding Kristen Grindley’s hit-and-run.
1) Investigators think Grindley was either forced out of the car or fell out.
According to authorities, Grindley was either pushed out of her ex-boyfriend Pasma’s vehicle or fell out of it by mistake the night before she was discovered unconscious. A passerby found her corpse the following day on Pullman-Albion Road and mistook it for a deer. She was scarcely dressed and barely clinging to life.
2) She suffered serious injuries, including a skull fracture.
Grindley was flown to Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane for treatment. She was admitted with a fractured skull, a broken shoulder, a broken ankle, and a broken nose, as well as other scratches and bruises.
3) Richard Pasma received a nine-month prison term.
Ricard Pasma was sentenced to nine months in jail after refusing to plead guilty. The judge who sentenced him to prison said that he was given the highest length of jail time feasible and that anything less would be a “slap in the face of Ms. Grindley.” Pasma has no prior criminal history.
4) Grindley said Pasma abused him.
Grindley recalled attempting to climb inside Pasma’s vehicle after retrieving recollections from that fatal night. However, she had no idea how she had fallen out. Prosecutors claim Pasma should have notified medical authorities after the event. Interestingly, she also said that she had been a victim of domestic violence while living with him.
5) Pasma’s counsel claimed that Grindley was to blame for her own accident.
Pasma’s attorney, Tim Esser, claimed that Grindley was inebriated when she fell out of the automobile. In a short, he wrote,
“The defense claims that Kristen Grindley is solely responsible for her injuries; that in an obsessive and drunken moment, she crawled into the back of Pasma’s truck and somehow managed to tumble out – without his knowledge.”
Esser also presented a handwritten message from Grindley in which she said that she wanted to “repair” her relationship with her lover by cutting down on her drinking.