CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – Wednesday will mark four months since Dwight Lee Carter, 55, was struck in a hit-and-run incident on Providence Boulevard that led to his death, and his family is pleading for help to find the suspect in the case.
Clarksville Police identified Stanley Cliff, 64, as the driver of the truck that hit Carter just days after the incident. He has several warrants for his arrest on file stemming from the crash, including vehicular homicide, but he has yet to be arrested.
‘Walking zombies’
At about 7 p.m. on April 18, the truck and motorcycle Carter was riding crashed on Providence Boulevard near Market Street.
Surveillance video from a nearby business showed the truck pulling out in front of the motorcycle, and then crossing multiple lanes of traffic to flee the scene.
The truck was described as a ’90s model, gray Ford F-150, two-door with extended cab. Two days later, the truck was recovered by Clarksville Police.
“We’re like walking zombies out here, still trying to locate Stanley,” Heather Arrington, Carter’s daughter, said of the last several months since her father’s death. “I’m just exhausted.”
“Going to his house, and him not being there,” Arrington said through tears. “I mean my step mom hasn’t even touched his side of the bed. The coke that he was drinking the night before is still sitting there on his nightstand.”
Frustrations
For Arrington, it has also been frustrating to not have any answers about Cliff and his whereabouts.
So, she began hanging up signs mainly around Austin Peay State University after a friend told her that they had spotted Cliff riding on a bike around the area.
“I went out and posted posters of his face and put ‘wanted,’ and you know my number, my brother’s number and the detective’s number if anyone has seen him,” Arrington said. “I went out, put the signs up and I went out the very next day and people had (sic) took the signs down,” Arrington said.
Arrington added that on several nights throughout the week, she and her brother visit groups of people known to hang around the areas where Cliff could be.
“A lot of people have said that they still see him down here at that store, right there where the vehicle was located at, that store right beside that shop,” Arrington said. “And I’m like why hasn’t anybody not even responded?”
Vanishing
Clarksville Police Lt. Charles Gill confirmed to Clarksville Now that there have been several sightings of Cliff, however, it seems as though as soon as they get the call, Cliff vanishes.
“I know that we’ve had calls in and just missed him,” Gill said, adding based on the sightings, that it’s likely he is in the Red River district, which Gill said encompasses Lincoln Homes, College Street and the Greenwood area.
“No one wants to bring closure to this case anymore than the Clarksville Police Department,” Gill continued. “Over the past couple months, all of the cold cases we’ve been bringing in, I mean we don’t quit looking.”
There is also a $1,000 reward offered for information that leads to Cliff’s arrest from Clarksville Crime Stoppers.
Anyone with information about Cliff is asked to please contact Investigator Burton at 931-648-0656, ext. 5665. You can also call the Tips line at 931-645-8477, or go online and submit a tip anonymously at P3tips.com/591.