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| Mercedeys Culligan |
Calvert City Police arrested Raymond Jarvis, 45, on Thursday, Aug. 3 after he was questioned at the police department. Investigators believe Jarvis had recently moved to Calvert City, having been residing in Marshall County for only a few weeks prior to when the incident occurred at about dawn on the morning of Aug. 1.
Jarvis is jailed in Marshall County on a $25,000 bond, facing a Class D felony charge of leaving the scene of an accident and failure to render aid with death or serious injury possible.
Eighteen-year-old Mercedeys Culligan of Calvert City, who was walking to work for her job at Dairy Queen, was allegedly struck by a 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer driven by Jarvis. The teen died at the scene, according to the police report.
Calvert City Police Chief Mike Cannon said the investigation is ongoing and authorities are still
wanting to speak to a presently unidentified driver of a gray or silver late model four-door pickup truck that was also operating in the area about the time of the crash. As an identifying feature, the truck has lights on its door mirrors. Anyone with information should call 270-395-4545.According to police reports, surveillance video from the area and a witness driving near the scene provided information that assisted authorities in identifying Jarvis as a suspect. His vehicle was located two days following the crash at a manufacturing facility in Princeton where the suspect was working. The police report said trace evidence was found on the undercarriage of the vehicle consistent with evidence at the scene, including hair.
Police documents indicate that a witness reported seeing a vehicle strike something on Oak Park Boulevard about the time Culligan is believed to have been hit. The witness, it appears, didn’t report anything to authorities at the time because the witness believed that the vehicle had hit a bag of garbage in the roadway.
Jarvis told investigators that he remembered running over a “figure that he claimed to be an animal,” the citation says.
A records search indicates that Jarvis has had multiple traffic citations over the past 25 years, mostly minor infractions for speeding and seat belt violations. He was in 2001 cited for reckless driving in Hopkins County.
Law enforcement in Marion and Crittenden County say they are unfamiliar with Jarvis. His only run-in with the law in Marion was in 2016 when he was cited after a traffic stop for failure to wear a seat belt. On the traffic citation from that incident, Jarvis listed South Carrollton, Ky., as his address. He is a native of Dawson Springs and is believed to have been living with a girlfriend in Marion up until a few weeks ago.
Jarvis’s Marion address listed on the pending felony citation points to a Marion rental home on Carr Street currently without city utilities. There was water and sewer service at the address until last month, according to city records.
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