Boyfriend of Hit-And-Run Victim: 'They Killed My Girl'

The boyfriend of a young Riverhead mother killed on Route 58 last week after a hit-and-run said he will not rest until the men are found that ran off and left the woman he loved to die on the road. 

Police said this week that the search is still on for the pair who ran off and abandoned their car after the accident.

Riverhead resident Joseph Reiter, Jr.'s voice broke as he described the last hours of Kristina Tfelt's life.

Tfelt, 26, he said, had been with friends at a barbecue; he'd had to work, he said.

The two had been staying temporarily at the Swiss Motel in Riverhead, Reiter, 35, said. He'd gone back to the hotel to change and Tfelt had told him she was going to the store to buy supplies for the party.

When Reiter got to the house where the party was being held, Tfelt wasn't there, he said. "I called her, and she told me the people she'd left with had gone to get cigarettes and were coming back to get her," he said.

He was still on the phone with Tfelt when her friends called and said they were heading back to pick her up, he said.

Reiter said he believes the friends saw the accident. "She was crossing the street to get picked up and the car hit her," he said. "They killed my girl."

And now, Reiter said he won't rest until the men who ran off and left Tfelt in the roadway are found. "Even if they had just called 911," he said. "But they just ran."

The car that hit Tfelt was reported stolen, Reiter said.

A memorial with flowers and candles has been set up by a wall on Route 58 near where Tfelt died, across from Lolly's Hut and near Laundry Palace. "You can see the skid marks where the car hit the wall," he said.

Tfelt, he said, "was so beautiful. She was the most beautiful girl in the entire world."

The couple shared a baby son, Joseph III. "He's an amazing little boy," he said.

Reiter brought their son to say good-bye to his mother. "I brought him to the funeral — how hard was that?" Reiter said. "He went up there and kissed her." 

Of Tfelt, Reiter said. "She was the kind of person that you just fell in love with," he said. "She was the most amazing mother. Her mother passed away, and all she ever wanted was to be a mom."

The couple had been dating a few months when Tfelt's birthday came, he said. "All she wanted for her birthday was a baby so I gave it to her," he said. "For her, it was all about the baby and me," he said.

Despite personal challenges she'd worked to overcome, Reiter said Tfelt was on a bright road, as a devoted mother who worked at Sergio's Pizzeria in Riverhead and took care of their son all day while he worked in construction.

And, despite, setbacks, Reiter said the future looked positive for Tfelt. "She was doing amazing," he said. "After all she's been through, to die in a car accident is just ridiculous."

The goal, he said, was for the couple to find an apartment to share with their son.

Although they had been living apart, Reiter said he was grateful that for the past two months, the couple was together "every day, all day," taking their first real vacation together to Atlantic City.

"She was my princess," he said. "Anything she wanted, she got." 

Reiter said he loved to "spoil" Tfelt with new wardrobes; one of those dresses was chosen for the funeral, Reiter said. "It had never been worn."

Looking ahead, Reiter said he can't rest until the two men that ran away are apprehended. "I’m from the streets," he said. "I've been going out every day to find out what the story is. And I'll keep going out in the street every day until I find them."