The FBI is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a Winters woman who is wanted in connection with a 2014 hit-and-run collision that killed a bicyclist.
Adrianna Melendez, 26, is on the run and may have fled to Jalisco, Mexico, to avoid vehicular manslaughter charges in Solano County, officials from the FBI’s Sacramento field office said in a news release Monday. She also is wanted on a federal arrest warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Melendez is suspected of driving a vehicle that struck 72-year-old Dan Taylor of Alamo on March 26, 2014, as he warmed up for a timed bike race event on Putah Creek Road east of Interstate 505.
California Highway Patrol investigators said Taylor, a retired Air Force colonel and member of the Benicia Bike Club, was riding alone eastbound on a stretch of roadway that bisects orchards in the area when he was hit by the westbound vehicle that had crossed into the eastbound lane.
The impact propelled Taylor over the vehicle and onto the dirt in an adjacent orchard, where he later was pronounced dead of multiple internal and head injuries. The vehicle continued into the orchard, nearly crashing into a tree before continuing westbound toward Winters.
Melendez took measures to conceal the fatal traffic collision and left her Winters home two days later, according to the CHP, which later identified her as the driver and obtained a warrant for her arrest in May 2014.
She is described as a Hispanic female with brown hair and brown eyes, standing about 5-foot-3 and weighing 256 pounds. Anyone with information about her whereabouts is urged to call their local FBI office or nearest United States embassy or consulate.
Tips, anonymous if desired, may also be submitted online at tips.fbi.gov.