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Sheriff’s office still investigating fatality

Jimmie Picklesimer

Staff photo by Chris Stewart The van at left travels south down Payne Avenue while a car waits at the intersection of Division Avenue on Monday, Aug. 2. Jimmie Picklesimer of Riverside hit and killed Rebecca Thompson of Harrison Twp. and one of her dogs while driving southbound early Sunday, Aug. 1, on Payne Avenue near just south of the intersection with Division Avenue in Harrison Twp.

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In this view looking south, an SUV headed on Payne Avenue crosses the intersection with Division Avenue on Monday, Aug. 2. Jimmie Picklesimer of Riverside hit and killed Rebecca Thompson of Harrison Twp. and one of her dogs while driving southbound early Sunday, Aug. 1, on Payne Avenue just south of the intersection with Division Avenue in Harrison Twp.

Staff photo by Chris Stewart In this view looking south, an SUV headed on Payne Avenue crosses the intersection with Division Avenue on Monday, Aug. 2. Jimmie Picklesimer of Riverside hit and killed Rebecca Thompson of Harrison Twp. and one of her dogs while driving southbound early Sunday, Aug. 1, on Payne Avenue just south of the intersection with Division Avenue in Harrison Twp.

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By Doug Page, Staff Writer Updated 1:46 AM Friday, August 6, 2010

DAYTON — Rebecca K. Thompson was walking her dog in the early Sunday morning dark as part of her efforts to rehabilitate from a shattered leg and to lift her spirits from the press of health issues, her mother said.

The walk ended with the deaths of Thompson and her sheltie. They were hit by a pickup truck driven by a man who authorities believe may have been impaired.

Jimmie Picklesimer, 24, of Riverside was released from the Montgomery County Regional Jail on Monday after a night in jail. And Thompson’s mother, Mary Lou King, wonders what Picklesimer was doing behind the wheel.

“This is terrible. If he hadn’t been on the road, he wouldn’t have hit my daughter,” King said Monday, Aug. 2. “Now, he’s killed my daughter.”

King said her daughter was on disability, following a fall that shattered her leg, the subsequent surgery and four months recovery in a nursing home. That was the latest in a string of medical problems that plagued the 42-year-old mother of three sons — 26, 23 and 19.

“She’d had a hard life,” King said. “She took to animals (as an outlet). ... She didn’t have much, but what she had she would share.”

A short time after deputies responded around 1:15 a.m. to the scene on Payne Avenue just south of the Division Street intersection, Picklesimer call the Regional Dispatch Center to report his Chevy S-10 pickup had been carjacked about two blocks north of the crime scene.

Deputies responded to Picklesimer’s home where he told them a young black male, armed with a handgun, had taken his car while he was stopped at a stop sign. He said the man reached in and grabbed the keys from the ignition, according to the report.

Deputies said the odor of alcohol was apparent as they interviewed Picklesimer. Picklesimer said he had fled the scene to a nearby gas station where he called his girlfriend to pick him up, reporting the crime when he arrived home.

Picklesimer had difficulty repeating the initial details of his story when asked to repeat it. His description of his S-10 matched paint found at the crime scene, as well as the distinctive sound of his special muffler. Deputies decided to take him to district headquarters to continue their investigation, the report said.

Before getting in the police car, Picklesimer was patted down. Deputies discovered a set of keys to an S-10.

At district headquarters, Picklesimer admitted he had hit Thompson and her dog. He said he was going 25 to 30 mph at the time of the collision and did not stop. He said he didn’t stop because he had downed six beers and was afraid he possibly could be over the legal limit. He denied, however, being intoxicated, the report said.

Picklemiser agreed to a urine test, but could not produce any. Blood was later drawn to determine the level of alcohol in his blood.

According to the Montgomery Coroner’s Office, Thompson died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck as a result of the collision.

Staff writer Joanne Huist Smith contributed to this report