Google review helps lead to arrest in fatal Riverview motorcycle crash

A witness to the crash that killed Kirk Adams left the review in case the other driver didn’t “do the right thing” and return to the scene, records show.

As midnight approached one Friday night last month, Tiffany Fletcher held on to her boyfriend Kirk Adams as he steered his Yamaha motorcycle down U.S. 301.

They were headed to C.J.’s Saloon in Riverview to shoot pool and were nearly there when Fletcher saw a white pickup suddenly turn into their path.

“The last thing I saw before I shut my eyes was the side of the truck,” Fletcher, 38, recalled.

She remembers Adams braking and swerving in a futile attempt to avoid a collision. Then Fletcher was on the ground, unable to move. She lost consciousness and woke up in a hospital bed next to Adams, 59, who was screaming her name. He died days later.

The pickup driver didn’t stop. Hillsborough detectives launched an investigation to track down the person behind the wheel.

An unlikely piece of evidence helped them make an arrest: A one-star business review on Google.

The driver, it turned out, was already on probation for a careless act that killed a friend eight years earlier. He now faces charges that could send him back to prison for decades.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/2023/08/01/google-review-helps-lead-arrest-fatal-riverview-motorcycle-crash/