CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – “I’m trying to post it everywhere I can to try and keep the word out, and now there’s a $1,000 reward that’s being offered by Crime Stoppers that wasn’t offered before,” Nicole Evitts said about her father-in-law’s death.

Friday marked a year since the fatal hit-and-run near Providence Boulevard and Plum Street that took 77-year-old Lilburn Evitts‘ life, and his family still needs answers about what happened.

Remembered as ‘Golf Ball’

Nicole is married to Jimmy Evitts, one of Lilburn’s eight children. He also left behind 26 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

He was adored by his family, and Nicole said Lilburn had quite the nickname: Golf Ball. It came from his time living on Paradise Hill Road on the edge of Mason Rudolph Golf Course.

“For years, he used to go around picking up and collecting the golf balls that came there over the fence, and he would sell them back to the place right there and make a little money off of them,” Nicole said.

His death has been hard on the family, but especially on Nicole’s four children – Lilburn’s grandchildren.

“It’s been very traumatic. My children are really the ones who are devastated by it because they were the closest to him. We saw him every day, we took him food every day,” Nicole said.

Most of all, the family is frustrated.

“(The detectives are) saying they’re at a standstill. Last time we talked to them, (the case went to) a new detective because the original detective had retired. They ended up assigning a new detective and they’re still saying there’s no tips coming in, no leads coming in – no anything,” Nicole said.

Search for ice on a hot night

At 11 p.m. on the night of July 9, 2020, Lilburn went to a nearby store to get something to drink.

“He was pretty much homeless. He was living in an apartment on E Street that had no electricity or anything like that.

It was a hot night, and Lilburn had gone to Bob’s Discount Tobacco & Beer to buy a couple cans of soda. But the refrigeration units at Bob’s weren’t working, and none of the sodas were cold. So Lilburn walked to the Shell station across Providence to get a cup of ice.

When he tried to cross the street coming back, he was hit by a car.

Nicole said he laid in the street for almost 30 minutes before Youssef Iskander, the owner of Bob’s, found out what happened.

“Some customer walked in the store and said, ‘Somebody is laying asleep in the driveway near the road,'” Iskander told Clarksville Now. “So I just walked outside to look, and actually from afar, I did not see a person. I thought like a trash bag or something.”

As he got closer, he saw blood, the cup of ice, and boots in the road.

“I just called 911 and then called his son to let him know what was going on,” Iskander said, adding that he knew Lilburn and his son Johnny well. “(Lilburn) was in the store all day, every day,” he continued. “He was a good guy.”

Nicole added that Lilburn died of a brain bleed.

“He did not deserve to die that way. He did not deserve to lay there and suffer like he did,” Nicole said. “There’s a possibility that if the person that hit him would have at least called 911, there was a possibility that he could have been saved.”

Leads gone dry

At the time of the hit-and-run, Police Sgt. Charles Gill told Clarksville Now there was one good lead regarding the driver of a car seen in the area around that time.

“We interviewed the guy, and it wasn’t him,” Gill said. “Since then, there were a few more leads that’d come in on the Tips Line and through the web page, but they never led to probable cause and we still don’t have a suspect.”

Now, the only description of the car that the family and investigators have is that it may have been a black four-door sedan.

Gill said most of the cameras on the buildings around Bob’s Discount Tobacco & Beer were not functioning that night.

“There’s nothing to go on right now,” Gill said. “If we get anymore tips, we’ll obviously pursue that wholeheartedly to get this family resolution.”

The case is still active, and Gill asked that anyone who has information about Lilburn’s death to come forward.

Nicole’s hope is that the Clarksville-Montgomery County Crime Stoppers reward will motivate someone to call.

If you or someone you know has information, please call the Clarksville Police Tipsline at 931-645-8477, or go online and submit a tip anonymously at P3tips.com/591.