DANA, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Erin Silotto remembers her dad, Edward “Eddie” Silotto, as a kind man who loved everthing outdoorsy and would help anyone in need.
“He was very fun, crazy, wild,” Erin said, laughing. “All those describe him to a tee. He was just an all-around amazing person.”
On February 24, 2021, Erin got the devastating news that her dad had been hit by a vehicle the night before while walking east along U.S. Highway 36 near the intersection with State Road 71 south of Dana.
The 51-year-old Montezuma native was flown from the scene to Carle Hospital in Champaign, Illinois, where he was pronounced dead from his injuries.
The incident left Silotto’s family with feelings that are still far from resolved three years later as the case remains open.
“I have a lot of anger,” Erin said. “But I still feel how I felt the day that I got the phone call. You know, as time passes, it doesn’t change; I still feel it.”
Vermillion County Chief Deputy Chad Hennis, who was a detective assigned to Silotto’s case in 2021, also still feels the sting of the unsolved investigation.
“Solving this case would give the family closure,” Hennis said. “It would give me some closure, (and) the department.”
The location of the hit-and-run that killed Silotto offered little evidence for investigators to work with in the early days of the case.
“It’s a pretty secluded area,” Hennis said. “There’s three businesses. We recovered video from a nearby gas station and determined it was a dark blue-ish, or could be black, Dodge, Ford or Chevy dually crew cab pickup with a snow plow on the front of it.”
According to investigators, the pickup truck’s snow plow said “THEBOSS” on the front and there were possibly construction materials in the bed of the truck.
Hennis said few community members were able to come forward with tips.
“We got two or three good tips, followed up on them, determined that they weren’t involved in it,” Hennis said.
The last known location of the pickup truck was heading south on U.S. 41 from U.S. 36. Hennis said several law enforcement agencies have assisted in the investigation, and that he has personally spent over 1,000 hours working on the case, even going through special schooling to learn new investigative techniques.
“Myself and one of our canine handlers went through school through ZetX programming to learn how to do cell phone tracking (and) geofencing locations,” Hennis said. “That’s where we did seven search warrants on locations where we knew this pickup truck was, and did not get any hits on a cell phone belonging to the individual in the pickup truck.”
Hennis said the individual likely either has a flip phone or had a cell phone that was turned off at the time of the incident, based on his investigation. Currently, his investigation is zeroing in on the Indianapolis area, but he is open to any tip or lead that is brought forward.
Meanwhile, the Silotto family remains hopeful that justice is coming, and with it, long-awaited peace.
“Just living day-to-day, going to sleep at night, it’s hard,” Erin said. “I mean, three years, that’s long enough. Somebody knows something, I love that term. Somebody does know something, and it’s going to come out. Whether it be 10 years from now, I don’t know, but it’s gonna come out, and it needs to come out soon.”
Anyone with information regarding the hit-and-run incident that killed Eddie Silotto is asked to contact the Vermillion County Sheriff’s Office at (765) 492-3838. Anonymous tips can be sent to the link here.
