'We Need To Have Some Sort Of Closure.' Family Asks Driver In Deadly Yarmouth Hit-And-Run To Come Forward

YARMOUTH (CBS) - The family of Alexander Gribko is struggling with an unimaginable loss, and coming forward to ask the public for help.

The family released the following statement:

"As many of you know, our father Alex Gribko was hit and killed in a hit-and-run accident earlier this week. Despite an active police investigation, we are respectfully asking the person involved to please come forward and take responsibility. This is our beloved dad. A grandfather, a great-grandfather. A friend to all. We need to understand what happened and to find some closure. ... He did not deserve to die alone. We are also here to ask the public to help with any and all information, however big or small, and please contact the police. We need to find the person responsible for this unimaginable tragedy," Betsy Hunt, Gribko's oldest daughter, read.

Though the family is upset beyond words, they know their loving father, grandfather and great-grandfather wouldn't want them to be sad.

"He was a piece of work. He had a really interesting sense of humor," Betsy Hunt said.

Gribko's family said he was 85-years-young, especially at heart.

"He loved all of us. Very much. Loved all his granddaughters, great-granddaughters," Melinda Gribko-Reyes said.

Gribko's three daughters walked back to where they lost their father, a man who taught them everything with so much more life to live.

"He taught us how to do everything, from swimming to scuba diving to riding our bikes to playing tennis. Everything that we all enjoy doing today is because of my dad," Melinda Gribko-Reyes said.

"His cardiologist just told him he was going to live to be a hundred (laughs), and he thought that was so fantastic," she added.

Police say Gribko was hit and killed on one of his routine walks of the neighborhood. They say the hit-and-run accident happened on Winslow Gray Road between Swan Lake Road and Joshua Baker Road.

"I don't know how we can find any peace with this, but I think you try to find the only little sliver of goodness and thinking, well, he was where he liked to be," Gribko-Reyes said.

Oftentimes he'd be with good friend Betsy Donovan. "Oh, I learned all about the neighborhood when we were walking. Who was here, who wasn't here. Who was going, who was coming. He loved everybody. He loved children and dogs. which was very important to me. Just a really, really nice guy," she said.

"My childhood memory is he would pretend to be Mr. Magoo. He would get all of us kids in the car, and we lived on a dead-end road, and he would drive with this eye shut, and when we would look, he would pretend to be blind and driving like Mr. Magoo," Betsy Hunt laughed.

What's preventing loved ones from fully grieving this unimaginable loss is the driver who took off and hasn't been heard from since.

"You have a family that's without a dad and a grandpa and a good friend, and we need to have some sort of closure," Karen Gribko-Warren, Gribko's youngest, said.

"We don't wish that person ill will; just apologize to us and tell us what happened," Gribko-Reyes added.

The main message from this family is for the driver. They want that person to know it's not too late to come forward.

As for everybody else, the family is asking if you know anything at all, please call the Yarmouth Police Department right away.