‘This has broke me;’ Father of Moraine hit-and-run victim says daughter was loved by all

HAMILTON — Family and friends laid the victim of a deadly hit-and-run crash to rest Thursday and her family is speaking out on how they’ll remember her.

20-year-old Emily Ryan was killed in the crash on I-75 in Moraine last week and this afternoon her father spoke to News Center 7.

“The last words she said to me was, ‘Love you, Da Da,’” Jeff Ryan said.

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Jeff told News Center 7′s John Bedell that he was dreading having to bury his daughter Thursday. He said it was something he “wouldn’t wish” on anyone.

“I said in there, in the service earlier, I said that I said here a broken man. This has broke me,” Jeff said. “I’ve been through things in my life, but never something like this.”

Jeff said his daughter was driving home from her job at a restaurant on Brown Street in Dayton Friday morning when he car became disabled on the highway. She got out of her car and that’s when she was hit and killed.

“I don’t know anybody that had evil to say of Emily, and I know that’s what most grieving fathers would say, but I’m speaking the truth,” he said.

Jeff told Bedell that his daughter was the kind of person who loved everyone and was loved by all.

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“Emily was the person when she walked in a room that everybody loved. She loved everybody. I’m seeing posts on Facebook and on her memorial of people I didn’t know,” he recounted.

The Huber Heights man suspected of hitting Emily last week, 37-year-old Nicholas DeBello, was arrested on an unrelated probation violation warrant and OVI in Kentucky on Tuesday.

Jeff said Moraine Police called him after the arrest was made.

“It helped because they kept us in the loop. We weren’t blind in all this and it really did help. As far as the arrest, I don’t know what to think. I’m doing my best not to be a bitter person. He took my baby. I don’t know how to process that. I just don’t know,” Jeff said.

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