WHO KILLED THIS WOMAN?

20-YEAR-OLD MELISSA LECH, A COLLEGE STUDENT FROM JOLIET, WAS STRUCK BY A VEHICLE THURSDAY AND LEFT IN THE STREET TO DIE.

JOLIET -- A University of Illinois student who died early Thursday was the victim of a hit-and-run driver.

At 12:20 a.m., passing motorists found Melissa J. Lech, 20, lying in the eastbound lanes of McDonough Street in front of the Illinois Youth Center Correctional Facility.

"They called 911, and ambulance personnel arrived to find her alive, but unresponsive," Police Capt. James Powers said. Lech was rushed to Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center. She was pronounced dead in the emergency room at 12:38 a.m.

"This looks like a very tragic accident," Powers said.

Police said Lech's family told them she had gone to a White Sox game in Chicago on Wednesday night. An accident reconstruction team and detectives worked Thursday to find out how Lech got to McDonough Street and identify the vehicle that struck her.

A Joliet resident and Plainfield School District graduate, Lech was about to begin her junior year as a political science major at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where she was also a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority and the pre-law club.

A brief biography on the sorority Web page mentions the young woman's monthly trips home to visit her dog, Punia.

"I'm addicted to HGTV and usually watch it so much I catch the same-day re-runs, and I can't live without 'Nip/Tuck' and 'Gossip Girl,'" she wrote. "I love -- love my pledge class because I never stop laughing when I'm around them. They're probably the craziest and funniest people I've ever met."

Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call the Joliet Police Traffic Division at (815) 724-3010 or investigators at (815) 724-3020. Callers can remain anonymously by calling CrimeStoppers at (800) 323-6734.