Family of Eagan man killed in Highway 169 crash speaks out for first time

In an instant, the life of 22-year-old Ryan Hobot was gone after a two-car crash on Highway 169 in Shakopee the night of Jan. 15.

His body was not discovered until the next day after someone driving by in the afternoon noticed a person lying in the center median of Highway 169 near Canterbury Road.

"Ryan was a phenomenal kid who lit up the room and didn't have a bad bone in his body," Ron Hobot, Ryan's father, said. 

Ron Hobot said word of his son's death hit the family hard.

"It was just an immediate shock, and the first thing I did was turn and hug my wife," Hobot said. "We just held each other and tried to listen to the details they knew at the time."

Mystery still surrounds death of 22-year-old found in Hwy. 169 median in Shakopee

Hobot said Ryan was a U.S. Naval Sea Cadet in high school, inspired by the tragedy of 9/11 and was getting ready to join the Minnesota National Guard to help serve his country.

"He was the kind of kid who would light up a room when he walked in," Hobot said. "And the BCA has told us in their preliminary report, that neither Ryan, nor the driver of the other car, was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the accident."

Hobot said the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension told him two people in the car that struck Ryan's car did leave the scene of the crash, not to avoid investigators, but to try and find help from a safe location away from the oncoming Highway 169 traffic.

"It is just a terrible, terrible accident," said Hobot.

There are two GoFundMe pages set up to help the Hobot family, one is to help with funeral expenses and the other is a scholarship fund for future U.S. Naval Sea Cadets.