The victim of a reported rape at the South Shore Commuter Line’s Miller
station in August was killed on Monday when she was struck by a hit-and-run
driver in the Glen Park section of Gary, Gary Police said.
Patricia Watson, 69, was pronounced dead at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn,
Ill., on Monday night, GPD Cpl. Gabrielle King told the Chesterton
Tribune today.
The incident occurred around 5:50 p.m., as Watson was leaving the Hunter’s
Inn bar in the 3800 block of Broadway, King said. Watson was attempting to
cross from east to west across Broadway—not at an intersection but roughly
the middle of the block—when a passenger car northbound on Broadway struck
her. The car—described only as a gray Buick—then fled the scene, King said.
Watson was transported to Methodist Northlake Hospital in Gary and later
transported to Christ Hospital, where she died.
On Aug. 13, around 1:50 p.m., Watson was eating a fast-food meal in the
passenger depot of the Miller station when a male subject on a bicycle
entered the depot, produced a handgun, and told her that if she failed to
comply with his instructions, he would kill her, NICTD Transit Police
reported.
A Gary teen, Aarion Teri Lee Mosley, 16, was subsequently taken into custody
in connection with the incident, waived into adult court, and charged with
rape, robbery, criminal deviate conduct, and criminal confinement.
Cpl. King said today that Monday’s hit-and-run does not appear in any way
connected with the August incident. “There’s no way we can connect the
dots,” she said. “The incidents occurred at two totally different locations,
the first in the Miller section of Gary and the second in the Glen Park
section. And it was dark at the time Ms. Watson was struck by the car.”
In October, Watson filed a tort claim against the Northern Indiana Commuter
Transportation District, alleging negligence on the part of NICTD, its Board
of Trustees, and certain of its officials, “by carelessly failing to take
any action whatsoever to stop or prevent the sexual attack/robbery.”
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