BLOOMINGTON — At approximately 6:40 a.m. on Tuesday, February 20, 2024, Monroe County Central Dispatch received a call about a person wearing dark clothing walking south in the northbound lane of South State Road 37 near Dillman Road in Bloomington.
According to Detective Lieutenant Jennifer Allen, approximately three minutes later, several callers reported the individual had been hit, but they had not witnessed the accident. Deputies and EMT personnel were dispatched to the area and arrived to find a female lying in the roadway, deceased.
That woman has been identified as Nerissa Bragg-Leaf, a 48-year-old unhoused woman staying in Bloomington.
Monroe County Sheriff’s Department reconstructionist and detectives were called to the scene.
The investigation led detectives to arrest 38-year-old Dustin Eason of Bloomington. He was taken to IU Health Bloomington Hospital for a blood draw and then booked into the Monroe County Jail on the charges of leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, a Level 4 felony. He has since posted bail and was released from jail.
The Court enters a plea of not guilty on behalf of Eason. A pretrial conference is scheduled for Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., in Monroe Circuit Court 3, and a jury trial is set for August 26, 2024, at 8:30 a.m.
