Family of 2023 hit-and-run victim offer $10K reward for answers

MOUNT OLIVE — Mary Ella Bunn loved to talk and tell stories nearly as much as she loved tending her garden. Self-educated and fiercely independent, the 96-year-old Mount Olive native affectionately known to neighbors as “Ma Bunn” grew crops year-round, often sharing them with the community she cherished. Her winter garden was flourishing when her son reported her missing in February of 2023. Officials discovered her body a few hours later in a ditch by her driveway on Summerlin Crossroads Road.

The fatal hit-and-run that robbed Bunn’s family of their beloved matriarch over two years ago remains unsolved, leaving her grieving granddaughters seeking answers and much-needed closure. Michelle Bunn and Misty Brammer are offering $10,000 for any information leading to the conviction of the party or parties responsible for their grandmother’s tragic death.

Although investigators have been able to determine that Bunn was hit by a large black or dark-colored GMC truck or SUV that suffered substantial damage to its right side in the collision, the vehicle’s specific model remains a mystery.

“Any help the community could offer in terms of finding the vehicle, whether it’s been repaired or sold, that would help tremendously,” Bunn told Duplin Journal. “Someone or everyone needs to come out and do the right thing.”

According to First Sergeant Jason Casteen with the North Carolina State Highway Patrol, the case is one of six unsolved pedestrian hit-and-run deaths being actively investigated in Duplin County, with some dating back to 2008. He indicated that while authorities have received leads in these cases — and specifically, in Bunn’s — they have been unable to substantiate or corroborate the information provided.

“I’m sure there’s somebody out there that knows what happened. Whether they want to come forward and identify somebody as a potential suspect, that’s a decision they’re going to have to make within themselves,” said Casteen. The first sergeant encouraged those with knowledge of the incident to contact authorities and explained that the identity of anyone providing information would remain anonymous.

“People need to know that if they’ve seen something — say something.”

Without the answers they desperately need, grief has become a complicated process for the family.

“There’s nothing that we can do to bring my grandmother back. God knows, I wish that we could do that,” lamented Brammer, adding that the sudden loss and lack of resolution has prevented her family from finding peace. “If you can imagine, it’s not just us as a family, it’s our community.”

The sisters say they’ve received information indicating that at least a handful of people know what happened — and that some are making concentrated efforts to prevent the truth from coming to light.

“How do you say it? ‘You need to come forward; this is the right thing to do, the human thing to do.’ This started as an accident, but now it’s purposeful — they’re putting themselves before the life of my grandma and the peace and closure of our family,” explained Bunn. “And that, to me… it just can’t be like that. It can’t be like that for our family or in other unsolved hit-and-runs.”

Brammer expressed that in order for the family to find peace and heal from the tragedy, the truth must come out.

“On a very basic, human level, they’ll need that too,” she said, referring to the party or parties responsible. “She would pray for whoever did this to her — that’s the type of person she was.”

Anyone able to provide information on the case is asked to contact the State Highway Patrol Office in Kenansville at 910-296-1311.