The parents of Amber Wilhelm released video statements Tuesday morning pleading for any information about the person who put his daughter in the hospital last Friday.
Wilhelm was struck Friday by a pickup while crossing the intersection of 12th and Bluemont in Manhattan. The truck and driver fled the scene. She is still in Stormont Vail Hospital in Topeka in critical condition. Police investigators are in the process of interviewing witnesses and collecting video surveillance of the area from several businesses as well as traffic control cameras.
“I got the phone call early Friday morning that my daughter had been in an accident,” Darryl Wilhelm says in the video posted by the Riley County Police Department. “Heard she was going to be in Topeka and drove here to find her laying in bed with tubes hooked up everywhere.
“(We’re) just looking to see if anybody has any information leading up to an arrest, just to help find the person so we can pick up the pieces and move on.”
Donna Wilhelm, Amber’s mother, said the phone call from police was jarring.
“That is one of a parent’s worst nightmares, to have to answer that phone call, knowing your child has probably been in an accident,” she said.
The RCPD says the sounds heard in the background of both videos are from critical care machines tending to Amber.
If you know who struck Amber, please call the RCPD at 785-537-2112, or use the Manhattan/Riley County Crimestoppers tip line at 785-539-7777.