{"id":297962,"date":"2026-01-29T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=297962"},"modified":"2026-01-29T10:09:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T16:09:35","slug":"suspect-identified-in-fatal-barnes-county-hit-and-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/?p=297962","title":{"rendered":"Suspect Identified in Fatal Barnes County Hit-and-Run"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Valley City ND (Valley News Live) – Authorities have identified a Mandan man as the suspected driver in a fatal hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian on Interstate 94 in December 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Charges have been submitted and are pending review by the Barnes County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garret Kuntz, 22, of Mandan, was identified as the driver of a 2001 Ford F-250 linked to the crash that killed Jerson Mejia, 27, of Honduras. The North Dakota Highway Patrol located Kuntz\u2019s vehicle after receiving an anonymous tip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident occurred on Sunday, Dec. 21, 2025, at approximately 12:11 a.m., on I-94 eastbound, about eight miles west of Valley City. Mejia was found deceased in a ditch by a passerby around 2:30 p.m. that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, dispatch had received multiple 911 calls on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, reporting a pedestrian walking along I-94. Law enforcement made contact with the man, who declined assistance. Additional calls continued to be received throughout the evening, with the last report to dispatch occurring around 10:55 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators at the scene found pieces of a vehicle consistent with a hit-and-run, including a damaged bug deflector. The Highway Patrol had previously sought public assistance in locating a vehicle, possibly a Ford F-150 or F-250 from the early to mid-2000s, with damage to the front bumper and passenger-side front quarter panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crash remains under investigation by the North Dakota Highway Patrol. Further information will be released pending the outcome of the Barnes County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s review.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valley City ND (Valley News Live) – Authorities have identified a Mandan man as the suspected driver in a fatal hit-and-run crash that killed a pedestrian on Interstate 94 in December 2025. Charges have been submitted and are pending review by the Barnes County State\u2019s Attorney\u2019s Office. Garret Kuntz, 22, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":296188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-valley-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=297962"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":297965,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297962\/revisions\/297965"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/296188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=297962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=297962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/csinewsnow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=297962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}