NORTH HAVEN — Police made an arrest in the hit-and-run that killed a 57-year-old woman on Ridge Road back in March.
Four months ago in North Haven, at a spot along Ridge Rd marked by a cross, Maureen Munzner, 57, died while walking with her husband and two sons. And police say 40-year-old Mark Rubino of Wallingford is person who hit her then left the scene.
“What makes it worse, of course, is that the person responsible left the scene of the accident and just left her lying on the side of the road,” said Kevin Smith, the Munzner family attorney.
Court documents say Rubino called police about a half an hour after the Ridge Road accident claiming he hit a deer, stopped his car and saw the deer stand up and run away.
So police met with him and examined his damaged car.
“The charges suggest that he acted in some negligent fashion,” said Frank Riccio, who is Rubino’s attorney. “We will determine what that is if at all while being very sensitive to both the victims family and to his family as well.”
According to police, Rubino changed his story and said he actually didn’t know what he hit, and claimed he had not traveled on the portion of Ridge Road where Munzner was killed.
“I can’t even comprehend what that must be like, particularly for the two sons to see their mother die right in front of them,” Smith said.
Investigators say they recovered a broken piece of a license plate frame at the accident scene that fit exactly where Rubino’s front license plate frame had a piece chipped off.
Several witnesses of the accident say a red car sped away from the scene. Police say Rubino drives a red Ford Fusion which, according to the arrest warrant affidavit, was swabbed for DNA on the car’s shattered windshield.
Results came back from the state forensics lab saying the DNA profile discovered was at least “100 billion times more likely to occur if it originated from Maureen Munzner than if it originated from an unknown individual.
