A one-star Google review has helped police identify a suspect in a fatal freeway crash in Florida.
Authorities were left with few leads after a driver fled the scene of a hit-and-run accident that killed Kirk Adams in Riverview on June 9, according to a report published Tuesday in the Tampa Bay Times. But the online review may now prove crucial in cracking the case.
Adams and girlfriend Tiffany Fletcher were on his motorcycle when a truck hit them on U.S. Route 301, killing Adams and seriously injuring Fletcher.
Surveillance footage from a nearby store showed a white pickup truck strike the motorcycle and continue down the road, but the truck’s driver could not be identified from the video.
Detectives with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office obtained other footage from surrounding businesses in the area that seemed to show the same truck. The additional angles revealed a business name, Arbor Pros, on the truck’s tailgate, according to authorities.
Upon Googling the business, a detective found a review for Arbor Pros Tree Service that claimed to be from a witness to the crash.
“Just doing this review because the owner or son of the owner had a big accident on 301 and Balm River involving a couple on a motorcycle,” the review said, according to court documents obtained by The Washington Post.
“The thing is he [fled] the scene and all I got was his company name on his white truck. Please if anyone seen his truck with a hit on the passenger side that’s the bike that he hit and ran like a coward. Putting this here in case he didn’t turn himself in yet.”
Around the same time, police found that a person named on an Arbor Pros business card, Chad Stall, previously received a traffic citation while driving a white 2010 Ford F-250 pickup.
When a detective went to the vehicle’s registered address, Stall reportedly arrived in the F-250. He told the detective that on the day of the accident, he left the truck at a job site and and returned home in an Uber, only to learn later from an employee that the vehicle was damaged while parked at the site.
Authorities said he became “uncooperative” when asked to corroborate his story with texts or phone records.
In interviews with police, Stall’s employees denied telling him that the truck was involved in an accident at the work site. One employee claimed that Stall said he’d damaged the car in a “fender bender.”
Authorities were eventually able to track down Ismael Gonzalez, the person who posted the Google review, and obtain an official witness account.
Speaking to police, the reviewer said that Stall got aggressive when Gonzalez confronted him on the day of the crash and told him to “do the right thing.” Gonzalez reportedly showed police two Arbor Pros photos depicting Stall and identified him as the pickup driver.
Stall was arrested on July 7, and he was later charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death and leaving the scene of a crash involving serious injury. Stall, whose arraignment is set for next week, could face up to 45 years in prison in the case.
Adams’ daughter, Kalyn Adams, told the Tampa Bay Times that she was grateful for Gonzalez’s fateful Google review.
“Anybody with a good heart, I hope, would do the same thing he did,” she said.