Lacking new leads, Dakota County closes hit-and-run case

(KMSP) - After six months with no new leads, Dakota County investigators have closed the case on a hit and run that left an Eagan cyclist fighting for his life over a year ago.

The man's positive outlook fueled a recovery nothing short of miraculous and is also why he doesn't seem frustrated no one's been caught.

“To be honest, I was kind of over it a long time ago, as far as the case,” Bryan Joas said.

Joas’s attitude has been amazing right from the start. He knows he could have died so many times: first on March 8, 2016, when he was hit on his bike, and several more times during his three months in the hospital.

He chooses not to think that way.

“I just try to focus on what I’ve got to do next. I haven’t really focused on the negative, even from the beginning,” he said. 

After the hit and run, Dakota County didn’t have much to go on; the few pieces of vehicle left behind appear to be from a bug deflector, not specific to a make or model.

As Bryan healed from broken back and pelvis, from losing his large intestine and most of his small, and as he went from taking his first steps four months later, to a 60 mile cycling event this year, investigators ran down leads and came up empty.

The case has now been closed as “unsolved.”  

“It’s not going to do me any better…they can’t take the parts of me that were taken away back. There’s nothing they can really do for me from a health standpoint,” he said.

Bryan’s attitude focuses on healing, rather than on anger.

“Obviously I’d like to put the puzzle piece together of what happened, and that would be nice to have that,” he said.