A 53-year-old man was killed in a hit-and-run collision near Maple Valley this weekend, and his family is asking the public for help to find answers about their loved one’s death and the driver involved.
The man — later identified by family as Maple Valley father and husband Greg Moore — was running near the 23800 block of Southeast 216th Street on Sunday morning, July 18, when he was struck by a driver, according to the King County Sheriff’s Office.
Moore liked to run early in the morning and was likely hit sometime between 4 and 6 a.m., though he was found by a passerby around 11 a.m., sheriff’s spokesperson Tim Meyer said.
The road Moore was running on is in a rural, less-populated area of south King County, and sheriff’s detectives haven’t been able to find much evidence or speak to many witnesses, Meyer said.
Moore is believed to have been killed as he was nearing the end of a 15-mile run, Meyer said.
He was born in New York and moved to Washington with his family when he was 12 years old, said Michelle Moore, his wife of nearly 30 years. He had lived in the state since.
He worked as a contractor for more than 25 years, building anything from “custom million-dollar-plus homes all the way down to custom cabinetry,” Michelle Moore said. He was an “artist in his field,” she said.
“We were a really good team,” said his wife, who occasionally helped out with his business. “I was the one who had the ideas and he was the one who brought them to life.”
The two have three grown children living in Washington and California, one of whom is expecting a baby this fall.
Michelle Moore said her husband was an avid runner and got into the sport to lead a healthier lifestyle after he was diagnosed with pancreatitis about 13 years ago.
“He used to be a drinker, he used to be a smoker, he did not lead a healthy lifestyle,” she said. After his diagnosis, however, his habits slowly started changing, she said.
“He loved his runs. … It gave him peace,” she said. “He died doing what he loved.”
On Wednesday, she started a GoFundMe to raise money for a reward for anyone who might have details about her husband’s death.
“He didn’t deserve this kind of nonsense,” she said. “We had plans. … Our future was stolen and this person just dashed it right out of his hands.”
She’s asking whoever was involved in the crash to “do him the honor” of coming forward so that she and her family “can have some peace.”
“We changed and grew so much as a team,” Michelle Moore said. “We most certainly had some rocky times, but these last few years have been really, really good ones. … We’re not extravagant and we’re not crazy — we sit on the couch and eat our dinner and watch TV and that’s what we did the night before (he died). It was nothing spectacular, but it was home.”
The sheriff’s office is asking anyone with information about the collision to call its nonemergency line at 206-296-3311.