Woman, 34, Is Killed in Hit and Run

DAVENPORT | A 34-year-old female pedestrian was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Davenport on Wednesday night, leading to the discovery that she was pregnant, the Polk County Sheriff's Office said.

Investigators are looking for the driver of the Ford Explorer thought to have struck and killed Jennifer Prokap, whose last-known address was 329 Australian Way in Davenport, the Sheriff's Office said.

After Prokap's autopsy, her father in Wisconsin and the father of the unborn baby were notified she was pregnant.

According to reports, a red Explorer was heading toward the Kangaroo store and gas station on U.S. 27 near Polo Park Boulevard about 7:45 p.m. The driver went around a tractor-trailer also approaching the intersection and drove onto the grass off the shoulder of the road where Prokap was walking, the Sheriff's Office said.

The SUV hit Prokap and continued on to the gas station, where surveillance footage shows the Explorer, with front-end damage, entering the lot, pulling into a handicapped parking space near the store entrance, backing out and moving to a gas pump.

According to the Sheriff's Office, the truck driver who had witnessed the accident parked his truck and walked to the gas pump to confront the female driver of the Explorer. She denied hitting anyone, continued to pump gas and left the station, driving south on U.S. 27.

The truck driver went inside the store and asked the clerk to call 911.

The driver of the Explorer is described as a small-framed, blonde woman in her late 20s to early 30s. The Explorer has significant front-end damage and broken headlights.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Polk County Sheriff's Office at 863-533-0344.

Prokap had recently moved to Florida from Wisconsin, where she has two children, according to friend Amy Clark, a clerk at the Kangaroo service station.

Clark said Prokap worked at a pizzeria across the street and would often bring food to Kangaroo employees who worked the late shift.

The Sheriff's Office said Prokap did not live with her father or the father of her baby. Spokeswoman Carrie Rodgers did not know how long Prokap had been pregnant, but said at the time of her death she had not yet begun to show.

[ Shoshana Walter can be reached at shoshana.walter@theledger.com or 863-802-7590. ]