The widow of a beloved Coffee County grandfather expressed gratitude and thanks after Tennessee Highway Patrol investigators arrested the man who hit and killed her husband and then left the scene.
Pam Mantone held back tears as she sat in the driveway of her Hillsboro, Tennessee home talking about the love of her life and husband of 45 years, Arthur Mantone, known affectionatly by his friends and family simply as “AJ.”
“Everything about his family was his life,” Pam said, as she looked down the driveway at the mailbox where her husband’s life ended on Monday.
AJ, 79, was getting the mail when investigators say he was hit by Shelton Melton of Smithville, Tennessee. Milton left the scene. Officials said he made no attempt to stop.
Driver In Fatal Coffee County Hit-&-Run Arrested
“They left him like an animal, no humanity, no sense of humanity at all and none of us I think will ever understand that,” Pam said.
After a day long search, THP officers managed to arrest Melton after matching a mirror left at the scene to that of the Mitsubishi Galant. They identified Milton as a suspect after receiving an anonymous tip.
Pam is still angry about the way her husband died but is eternally grateful to the five THP officers who came to her home on Tuesday night to let her know an arrest had been made.
“It made my husband’s case, it made me feel like my husband’s case was personal to them,” she said.
Funeral arrangements for AJ Mantone were set for Saturday in Manchester. His family has asked people to donate to the Parkinson’s Research Foundation in lieu of sending flowers.
