WEAVERVILLE � She was a 19-year-old fireball with a love for life and family and a heart with a soft spot for strays � people or animals.
And on Sunday, it was these traits her father shared between tears a day after Karen Elizabeth Herndon was killed in a hit-and-run in Woodfin.
Herndon, a North Buncombe High School graduate, was struck after she had gotten out of the car her mother was driving on Weaverville Highway Saturday morning after an argument with another passenger, her father Charlie Herndon said.
She became the victim of the second hit-and-run in the county in about one week. Last Saturday, a hit-and-run in an Oteen mobile home park left a toddler dead.
Herndon was struck by a vehicle on the 72nd block of the highway about 2:30 a.m., said Charlie Robinson, with the Woodfin Police Department.
She had been living at home in Weaverville while attending Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College after a stint at UNC Charlotte, her father said.
�She was very likeable, very bright,� said Charlie Herndon, who couldn�t help but laugh at himself. �I sound like a father, don�t I?�
But as he began to explain what his daughter was like � gregarious with a very subtle and dry sense of humor � the tears began to come.
�I have a note right here on my desk from her. It says, �You�re such a loser,�� he said. �And it�s the most important note I have right now � because that meant that she loved me. We were very close. We had a very open, honest relationship. It worked for us, for our family.�
She is survived by her father; her mother, Gwendolynn; her sister, Lindsey Cheryl Herndon, 21; her foster brother Micah Herndon, 17; and her paternal grandparents, Clifford and Dorothy Perkins Herndon.
�We will miss her every day,� Charlie Herndon said.
Karen Herndon was also a member of the New Bridge Baptist Church, where she joined on her own despite growing up in a nonchurch-going family, her father said.
That was where she spent much of her time � going on mission trips to West Virginia, Oklahoma and Honduras, Charlie Herndon said.
�And if we didn�t put a stop to it, she would have had every stray in the neighborhood in the house � people and animals,� he said. �But she also had a temper, like any teenager.�
And it was an apparent argument that sent the 19-year-old out of the vehicle and onto the road early Saturday morning.
�She had an argument with another person in the car and got out,� her father said. �My wife was panicked and just trying to figure out what to do. There�s very little detail right now.�
Robinson said police are investigating and working to get a description of the vehicle that hit the woman.
Anyone with information should call the Woodfin Police Department at 253-4889.
This article was from last weekend. I corresponded with the reporter who wrote the article and she told me that a suspect has not yet been found and there is no description of the vehicle.
I have a couple of pleas to make tonight. If you are a blogger reading this, be it crime blogging or a North Carolina blogger, could you please post an entry about Karen.
Secondly if anybody reading this has any information regarding the hit and run no matter how insignificant you think it might be please call the Woodfin Police Dept. at the number listed above.
Lastly for the person who did this, please do the right thing and turn yourself in.
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