"This guy hits and just drives off, like no big deal, you know, like he hit a dog or something," said Jerry Davison, the victim's brother-in-law.
Detectives had no idea who was responsible for the deadly wreck until now, thanks to an improbable piece of evidence. Wallace Trexler was killed in a hit-and-run crash last week at I-45 near Delaney. Police had nothing to go on until they found out the whole thing was captured on video.
Trexler was a refinery worker for BP, a father of eight and a youth sports coach. The man police say is responsible for his death spent only one night in jail.
Wreaths mark the spot of the collision.
"We're going to miss him," said Terry Davison, Trexler's brother-in-law. "He was a good person."
Forty feet away, crosses adorned with flowers pinpoint where the 53-year-old's motorcycle ended up.
Jerry explained, "They say that he stopped over there, stopped, backed up and pulled the bike to the side of the road, then drove off. So he knows he hit him."
For Trexler's family, driving past this intersection will never be the same.
"It's kind of killing us all," Terry said. "Trying to wonder what happened to him."
La Marque police say Stephen Loyd Hudetts, 60, was driving a concrete truck, turning left onto I-45 when he smashed into Trexler's canary yellow motorcycle, dragging it around the corner. Surveillance video from a camera inside a hotel helped lead investigators to the suspect.
La Marque Police Department Detective Sgt. Shawn Spruill explained, "We were able to track the concrete truck to a company out of Galveston."
Hudetts was arrested Wednesday and charged with an accident involving injury or death. He bonded out late Thursday. Fired from his job with the concrete company, we found him at his Dickinson home. While he had few words for us, Trexler's brothers-in-law have many for him.
"I just want to know why, why he'd have done something like this," Jerry said.
We called the concrete company. They chose not to respond to our request for a comment.
If convicted, Hudetts faces between two and 10 years behind bars and could have to pay a fine of up to $10,000.
