Family and friends mourn loss of teen in hit-and-run

CLINTON, Conn. (WTNH) -- It was just before six o'clock Friday night when Cailyn Bassett of Clinton was walking down Old Saybrook Road in Middletown. She'd been visiting friends there when she was struck by a car and killed. The driver left her lying on the road.

"My world crashed, my heart's been ripped out, I just want my baby back. I want the person found and held accountable," Cailyn's mother Stephanie Phillips said.

Middletown police have not made any arrests in the case but do have some solid leads. News 8 found them searching a truck at police headquarters and they tell News 8 surveillance video in the area of the accident led them to the truck as well as another car.

At the Morgan School in Clinton where Bassett was a sophomore, it is a difficult and emotional time.

"They're coping with their grief in all kinds of different ways and that's what we need to let them do," Clinton Superintendent Jack Cross said.

Over in Middletown, police and major crimes search vehicles for evidence in connection to the hit and run accident which took her life.

News 8's Stephanie Simoni asked Lt. Heather Desmond of the Middletown Police Dept. if they are speaking with the owners of the vehicles.

"Anyone who may be involved in anyway, we are going to talk to. Any witnesses who know anything we're going to talk to," Lt. Desmond said.

"Do you have any eye witnesses now," News 8's Simoni asked.

"Um, I can't go into that right now. That's something that because the investigation is on going we can't release that information," Lt. Desmond said.

While police work to find out who was behind the wheel, her friends and family struggle to find a way to cope.

"They're sad, I mean the reality is they're sad. You know, some have expressed some anger, their frustrations with the fact that this is not right, it's a 15 year old friend that has passed," Cross said.

Counselors have been called in to help her friends and fellow students cope but for those closest to Cailyn there is no real comfort.

"She was a beautiful 15-year-old girl, the light of my life, my baby," Phillips said.