Left for dead?

Police investigate possible hit-and-run on Route 52

By CHARLIE BUTERBAUGH

COCHECTON CENTER, NY — Police are investigating a 67-year-old man’s critical injuries as the effects of a possible hit-and-run incident on Route 52.

Asku Takori’s son, Tino, is certain that someone struck his father deliberately with a car, leaving him in critical condition with a fractured skull, bleeding brain and broken ribs and nose.

“Someone left him for dead,” Tino said. He’s offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the person(s) responsible.

“We don’t know if it’s a hit-and-run yet,” said Detective Jason Gore of the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department. “But we’re treating it as such.”

Aksu, so far the only witness to what happened on Tuesday, September 27, can’t remember the turn of events that left him lying unconscious in the middle of the roadway. After being treated at the scene by Cochecton Volunteer Ambulance and Mobile Medic, he was airlifted to Community Medical Center in Scranton, where a neurosurgeon is trying to help him regain his memory.

“We don’t have the answers unless someone comes forward or unless he [Asku] comes out of it,” Gore said. “It’s a matter of putting the pieces together.”

At about 11:30 a.m. on September 27, the sheriff’s department received a report of a man lying in the roadway on Route 52 between Lake Huntington and Cochecton Center, near Kelly Road.

Several times each week, Asku would ride his bicycle from his house in Kenoza Lake to Narrowsburg, where he would pick up his mail and drink a cup of coffee at the grocery store, Tino said.

Gore said Asku’s bicycle had not been damaged, nor could police find “transfer marks” on the victim’s clothes, such as tire tracks or paint that a car might leave behind.

Tino said his father’s clothes were perfectly clean and that the road showed no skid marks, which is leading him to believe that whoever hit Asku didn’t try to stop.

One week after the accident, as Gore questioned drivers along Route 52, the detective said he could not yet verify that Asku was struck by a car.

But Eric Bunch, captain of Cochecton Volunteer Ambulance, said, “Yes, he was struck. That would be my opinion.” Bunch said his opinion is based on observations he made while treating Asku—observations he can’t reveal because of patient confidentiality laws.

Bunch would say that Asku’s bicycle was facing toward Lake Huntington— or opposite the direction in which the man was riding.

In the week following September 27, Tino interviewed people along Route 52. He said someone saw his father resting at the gas station in Fosterdale on his way to Narrowsburg that morning.

“He [Asku] can’t tell us what happened,” Tino said. “He’s talking about his life in Brooklyn 30 years ago.”

Brian Heinle of Heinle’s General Store said a person who found Asku lying in the road used the telephone booth in Cochecton Center to call 911.

Asku bought a house in Narrowsburg in 1975, though about a year ago he entrusted someone with taking care of the property and living there while he recovered from some financial difficulties, Tino said. The person turned around and sold the house, according to Tino, who has been helping his father rent a house next to his own in Kenoza Lake while they battle in court to reclaim the house in Narrowsburg.

Tino said about two weeks before September 27, a blue pickup truck crashed into Asku’s house in Kenoza Lake. Tino said he looked out the window, saw the truck speed off, and then reported the incident. Both state police and county sheriff’s deputies responded, he said.

“The bottom line is that he would hurt nobody,” Tino said.

Anyone who has information regarding the case should call Takori at 914/799-3985.