New billboards the latest effort to generate tips in fatal hit-and-run of Mille Lacs County doctor
There are new billboards along Highway 169 outside Onamia trying to generate tips in the hit-and-run death of Dr. Cathy Donovan.
Donovan, 56, was on call at the hospital in Onamia but went home briefly to walk her dogs when she was hit while trying to cross Highway 169 just before 5 p.m. on Nov. 13, according to investigators.
“She was a friend to all of us, everybody misses her,” said Becky Fossand, the chief administration officer at Mille Lacs Health System and one of Donovan’s coworkers.
The hospital recently turned its billboards into ones asking for clues in Donovan’s case.
“It continues to be talked about in this area,” Fossand said. “‘What happened? Somebody’s got to know something.'”
Tips continue to come into investigators at the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s Office.
“We did have someone come forward, they believe they saw her talking to somebody, a car pulled over to her on the crossover where the accident happened, that’s kind of interesting to us,” said Sheriff Kyle Burton. “We’d definitely like to talk to who that person is.”
The crossover mentioned is from Highway 169 at Twilight Road alongside Mille Lacs Lake.
Investigators are also trying to track down the driver of another vehicle captured on a security camera on Nov. 13th before 5 p.m. — around the time the doctor was hit.
“I’m very confident we’ll find who did this — it’s just going to take time, and that’s hard. The patience game is very difficult with a case like this,” Burton said.
Some of the first responders and investigators working the case knew or had Donovan as their doctor.
Anyone who has any information that can help investigators is asked to call the Mille Lacs County Sheriff’s tipline at 320-983-8346, or the Minnesota State Patrol at 218-316-3026.