These Are Your Top Guesses For The Car Involved In That Fatal Hit-And-Run In California. Let’s Try To Pare Them Down

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Earlier this week, the Capitola Police Department asked for our help. A pedestrian had been struck and killed by a crossover SUV that fled the scene, and the trail was getting cold. Thankfully, the awesome Autopian community is full of top-notch car geeks who know their stuff, so the search for the hit and run CUV turned up several possible models. Sadly, we don’t have a definitive answer, so here, let’s have a look at our top guesses and see if we can pare them down even further.

While we still aren’t entirely sure on what the suspect vehicle is, your help narrowed it down to several possible vehicles, often with multiple shoutouts in the comments. So, here are the six most-plausible vehicles as chosen by you. Before we get to them, here are the images we have. Here are screenshots of the front and rear of the suspect’s car:

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402103870 680687354165194 603693199133212901 N

Here someone has stitched them together:

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Here’s a ring camera showing the suspect’s vehicle at about 17 seconds in going from right to left:

OK, now let’s have a peek at what Autopian readers think the car is:

Genesis GV80

Genesis GV80

It shouldn’t be a huge surprise that the brand using two horizontal light elements per corner has a model on this list. After all, the taillight signature works, and the car features both a shark fin antenna and various five-spoke wheel designs. However, there’s some doubt about whether the split headlights would blend together enough to produce the right look in footage, and the car in the stills doesn’t appear to have roof rails, as the GV80’s bright silver roof rails should glint or otherwise show on camera. Oh, and the dash-to-axle ratio looks far too short to be anything on a longitudinal architecture. Mind you, given the, ahem, limitations of CCTV, it’s possible the roof rails could’ve hid in the shadows and the dash-to-axle could’ve been distorted.

2013 to 2019 Ford Escape

2017 Ford Escape

Lots of people are suggesting the previous-generation Ford Escape as a possible culprit, but there are a few reasons why it doesn’t seem plausible. Firstly, the base S trim that came without roof rails should’ve come with a short mast antenna. Secondly, the taillights have an illumination pattern completely at odds with the taillights in either the still shot or the video. Otherwise, this was a popular guess.

2022+ Chevrolet Traverse

Chevrolet Traverse Ls

Here’s another domestic crossover that people suspect could be the vehicle in the photos. Slim headlights, a base model without a roof rack, close base trim wheel designs, a somewhat boxy silhouette with a sloping nose, and the all-important shark fin antenna make this somewhat plausible. Admittedly, the taillight elements seem a bit close together, but I’ve certainly been wrong before.

2011 to 2013 Toyota Highlander

2011 Toyota Highlander

The second-generation Highlander adopted a shark fin antenna during its facelift, and you could get it without roof rails. The headlight pattern seems to work, and the taillight pattern isn’t a half-bad match, but there is the minor detail of the wheels. Since the base trim came with seven-spoke alloys, those would need to be swapped out for the Sport trim or the hybrid’s five-spoke wheels to match this description. If anything, that would make such a vehicle even more distinctive.

2020+ Land Rover Discovery Sport

Land Rover Discovery Sport Rear

This is a particularly good guess made by multiple people. Available without roof rails? Check. Horizontally-split taillights? Check. Slim LED headlights? Check. Shark fin antenna? Check. Short dash-to-axle? Check. You could even get previous model year examples with a set of split-five-spoke wheels that look pretty damn close to what’s seen in the footage. Definitely call this one plausible.

2023+ Honda Pilot

Honda Pilot Lx Rear

Speaking of crossovers that tick a ton of boxes, a handful of commenters have mentioned the current Honda Pilot, and it definitely seems plausible. While the front end is a bit blunt, everything else lines up well, and it’s hard to guess some cues in the stills thanks to the distortion of CCTV lenses and the way most rolling shutters work. Still, this is among the best matches so far.

John Paul Jose even put together this graphic:

Similarities To 2023 Or 2024 Honda Pilot Especially Ex L Trim Level

That’s pretty darn convincing.

What Have We Learned?

Well, many crossovers look similar if you view them through a grainy camera feed in the dark. I’m beginning to get a sense of why Loch Ness Monster sightings are a thing. Still, your help has narrowed down the options considerably. In any case, please press on. A hit and run killer is still out there, rolling around in a car on stilts.

Let’s see if we can at least come to some kind of consensus in terms of assigning each vehicle a likelihood-of-being-the-car value.

(Photo credits: Genesis, Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Land Rover, Honda)

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94 thoughts on “These Are Your Top Guesses For The Car Involved In That Fatal Hit-And-Run In California. Let’s Try To Pare Them Down”

  2. John Paul Jose’s graphic looks pretty convincing except for one thing I’m seeing. In the still photo, it’s faint, but it looks to me like the pillar behind the rear door slopes to the rear as it goes up. Not sloping forward. And has somewhat of a color or panel division as it wraps across the roof, reminiscent of the original GM Dustbuster vans.

  3. Is the video even the correct vehicle? There’s only one vehicle going right to left in that time range on the video. As it’s maybe 3/4 the way to the left, is a good view of the rear. The taillights clearly look like 3 square-ish panels with the middle panel not quite as bright. No hint of a horizontal split whatsoever like on the still photo. Also the video shows more of a face mounted taillight, where the still photo shows more of a corner mounted taillight.

    1. The car in the video is blue, the car in the still photos is green. And like you said, the tail lights are completely different. I don’t know what led the police to think it’s the same car, but it’s not.

      1. Editing to add: after poring over Google maps and street view, I’ve figured out the locations of the photos and Ring video.

        The still photos are within a couple hundred feet of the scene of the crime, while the Ring video is a half mile and several intersections away. If they aren’t the same car, it’s the still photos that are showing the one that matters.

  5. There is a feature in the split view on the dashboard I’m trying to find in car pics. Abarth, you said you had a Pilot, can you see if there is something there? I can’t find a pic of that view online anywhere.

  6. I was firmly in the Discovery camp until I spent 10 hours on Wednesday staring at taillights on my way down to DC. Saw several GV80s and they didn’t look quite right. Many times, I would see suspect taillights and caught up to several Honda pilots. Only once was it a Discovery. From the camera images, the roof is complexly smooth, Land Rover and Pilot match, but not Traverse and some others that have corrugations. My kid and I tried to use photomode in Forza Horizon to look at several cars from top right rear, but the vehicle selection was too limited. I agree with the other poster, that anyone in the group that has these cars should try to recreate the angle/lighting. We also need an easy way to share photos on this site. I watched a lot of Columbo growing up, so I can expertly say that the person we are looking for is probably commenting on this site and will try to misdirect our efforts. Columbo would make everyone think he was looking for a Honda Pilot, but he’d know all along it was the second hand Discovery owned by a philandering businessman. Safe travels everyone.

    1. I was also firmly in the Discovery camp until I saw the video and saw the position of the license plate vs the taillights. I am now convinced it is the Pilot.

  7. From Europe: Saw a 2020ish Range Rover Velar today and it stopped me cold, no sunroof, slight overhang of the rear roof, shark antenna, wrap around tail and headlights, 5 spoke wheels.

  8. Apologies if I’ve missed it, but what about the rear reflectors that show up on the ring video. Do the seem like they wrap around to the side of the rear bumper; am I catching that as it passes?

  9. I think I need to remind everyone that the motto of the GV80 is “Let Nothing Stand in Your Way”. Still, could be a GV70 or Pilot.

    But generally, the large luxury set are the most likely to mow people down.

    1. You’re quantifiably wrong, unless we’re qualifying Toyota Echos and Chevy Luminas as “large luxury set.” And if we want to separate out generic hit-and-runs from pedestrian deaths, vehicles involved in pedestrian deaths pretty much mirror vehicle popularity on the road, with F-150’s and Accords and Corollas and Camrys topping the list. If you want to look at at-fault accidents, those are heavily biased towards inexpensive cars purchased by young drivers like… errr… the Kia Forte. If you want to tease out your own data, you can of course always go here to do so.

      It’s this kind of eat-the-rich bullshit that has no bearing on automotive knowledge or education that infuriated me with the old lighting site, and it would generally be a win to keep it outta here, too.

      2. I kinda assumed that the quote I was using as an example made it clear I wasn’t taking things too seriously with my comment. But clearly you took it very seriously. I’m not sure why it bothers you so much if someone has an eat-the-rich mentality, we have plenty of wealth inequality these days and it isn’t the poor who are driving it. Are you wealthy and sensitive, or just a rich apologist? I’m certainly not someone with an axe to grind, but making jokes at the expense of wealthy people is great because they’re doing just fine, and making fun of disadvantaged people is just kinda lame. Regarding this particular one, there have been a few high-profile cases lately where someone well-connected and wealthy has mowed down a pedestrian, left the scene, and somehow only had to pay a fine or do a bit of community service.

        Regardless, anyone with a modicum of critical thinking skills would expect under the influence, uninsured, unlicensed, or inexperienced drivers to be most likely to perpetrate a hit and run. These are the people that have a strong disincentive to stick around. Most of those categories(except DUI) overlap pretty strongly with being poor. I have personally had my car totaled by someone who split the scene because of some combination of those factors.

  10. I was initially pretty sure on the Escape theory but I was apparently not familiar with the new model Pilot so I think I’m changing my vote. The lighting seems more consistent to the Pilot than the Escape and being the most identifiable characteristic of the photos I’m going to have to go with that also.

    EDIT: I also just needed to add that it’s freaking awesome that this community will come together here to help on something that will benefit none of us personally but because we have the hive mind to do the right thing for someone else.

    1. I originally thought GV80 until I saw the higher license plate mounting on the suspect vehicle, then leaned towards an Escape. The Pilot is a strong possibility as well. The composite side shot image might be making the vehicle look shorter than it actually is.

      And yes, this community kicks ass. Even if we all turn out to be completely wrong we’ve done what we can to help track this POS down.

  11. The sewn together photo is super distorted. It is a Ford Escape. Those are the same rims our Escape has, tail light are the same as is the rear mounted antenna. Because we have the panoramic sunroof there are no roof rails. The distorted photo makes the roofline look different, but that is an Escape

    1. This. It’s not a Pilot (hood too flat, headlights wrong shape, overall shape of top half/DLO wrong). It’s not a GV80 (back window way too angled). The shape is an Escape, and if a guy who owns one says the lights match, it’s an Escape. I see some without roof rails in an image search too.

  12. I stared at the photo for a long time last night and couldn’t figure it out. This morning, going to the store for one…more…potato. A single potato is what I was entrusted to procure. Anyway, a new Honda Pilot pulled out in front of me and I just reacted, that’s it! That’s the car from the photo! Looking at the Honda configurator, it was obsidian blue. No roof rack so probably an EX-L. Same wheels. We didn’t end up needing the potato.

    I’ll bet one russet potato it’s a 2023 Honda Pilot.

  13. To me it looks just like the Pilot. The lights seem the same, the shape seems the same, the wheels seem the same, and Pilots are quite common. Also, some years of Pilot have been available in green, and that sure looks like a green (colored) vehicle.

  14. I was just thinking about this, and I realized that we at the Autopian have a resource which no one else has: an awesome community full of people with awesome cars. Perhaps we could conduct an experiment to further narrow down the suspect vehicles.

    If we could arrange for a sample of each suspect vehicle to drive past that camera under similar environmental conditions as the original car, if we are lucky the visual distortions in the new images and the original images will be the same. Then it would only be a matter of identifying the match.

    2. Then maybe we can also ENHANCE! Joking aside, I think it’s down to the Discovery and the Pilot. The Pilot seems more convincing to me today for sure, though. If we could start there, I think we’ll have an answer pretty quick.

  18. I wrote a screenplay a few years ago where a bad guy contemplated which car to steal. He decided a silver Camry was the best choice because they were everywhere and he could blend in. If I were writing the story today I have him steal just about any crossover because, unless you geek out on them like Torch does taillights, they’re so hard to tell apart.

    1. There was a passage in a Lawrence Block novel, I believe Hit Me, where the main character decided his rental Sentra was basically invisible to would just swap plates with other ones he came across while on the run.

    2. There was a gang from Canada robbing banks in the US, they would steal the most common family cars and put a stuffed animal or colourful hardhat in the back window or tape stripes on the car. People would forget everything but those items that were easily removable.

      1. When I was a kid I was at Milan station in Italy and there was a guy in a bright yellow rain jacket lurking around looking like he was going to pick pocket people. I was only 12 so I thought it was a poor choice of attire but realised shortly afterward he could just ditch the jacket and be gone

    3. I’m in the same boat, but also thinking that GV70 could be a candidate? Especially electric as it is much quieter than the other cars in the ring video.

      1. The GV70 is too much coupe for that. Top spoiler of the sought car is right above the taillight, with the GV70 the top spoiler is well before the taillight.

  20. Another factor to consider that’s unrelated to visual aspects is the prevalence of particular SUV models. There’re tons of Pilots, Hyundais, and Escapes on the road, not as many Discos and Genesis. Although it is California, so … Still, while you can’t rule out less common models, the higher volume models would seem statistically more likely to be involved.

    1. This is an important point. Also, the price points of the Discovery and Genesis relative to the others statistically make them less likely to be driven by people who’d commit crimes like these. As you point out, this is just statistically speaking, but it’s good context to help.

        2. Hey, I was careful to specify statistically….I’m not totally silly!

          So I mean it may not be true in any individual instance, but that with a large enough population, the chance that a such a car was used in a crime is lower than the chance of the others being used. Sure, it’s just data, may or not be useful, but always good to consider.

          One of the things I’d also check: have any Discos/Geneses (?) been reported stolen recently in the area? Vehicular stuff can be tough given how many of us engage in driving, but overall, as the saying goes, crimes do tend to be committed by criminals.

  21. 2013-2016 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport Ultimate.

    I just posted this on the original thread. The taillights are single lens with two light elements as seen in the video. It appears double in the still so everyone is being thrown off.

    Panoramic roof, factory HIDs. 5 spoke wheels, twin spoke actually. Headlights are single long blob with a step side reflector.

    It’s this: https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a15106964/2015-hyundai-santa-fe-sport-awd-20t-test-review/

    1. It’s close, but I think the taillights and headlights differ enough for exclusion. I didn’t go back that far because the headlights look too new to my eye. They look more like LEDs than HIDs and so I though newer model. However, if I am wrong, you have my thanks for the correction. I just want the driver caught ASAP.

      1. I am with you, want the driver caught. The Pilot is so close, I want it to be right so the police can narrow what they are looking for.

        The reason I thought HID is the blue tint in the light as seen in the video. LEDs throw a white light in my experience, like the car passing the other direction.

        Also, if you pause the video after the car passed the camera, you can see the taillights throw a flat circle pattern. Very unusual, is making me rethink the Santa Fe.

        But still think blue tint = HID, so an older car. Lmk what you think.

    2. I like this Santa Fe guess for the way the short hood slopes down, vs the Pilot with a longer flatter hood. There’s obviously some image distortion there so it’s hard to pin anything on that one design element.

      If it’s a 2023 Pilot that would be ideal simply because there aren’t nearly as many out there yet, and a brand new car with hood damage should be much easier to find than a ubiquitous beat up older Hyundai.

  22. Only God can help those going against the likes of The Autopian and members like John Paul Jose. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see his graphic as a prosecution exhibit. Well done sir!

    1. Well, Crank Shaft, your diligent work going through the Cars.com list hasn’t gone unnoticed. Thank you! And of course, thank you John Paul Jose and everyone else who pored through photo after photo to figure this out.

      We’re not 100% on Pilot, but it’s a great match, and I think it’s going to help Detective Currier get closer to figuring this out.

      1. We don’t know the tint of the lighting on the car. The railing is likely white, but also has a tint. White balancing might not be correct depending on what the camera defaults are or what it’s using in the image for reference.

        1. True, we’re looking at photos taken on a rotten potato. But the tint of the white railing is blue (checked it in Photoshop), so if the color balance is being thrown off by the lighting then a blue car would look even more blue than it is, not green. And it looks really, really green.

          1. That assumes the railing and car are under the same lighting. A porch light would throw off the railing color as well. Multiple light sources can make color balancing off for different parts of the photo.

            1. Lots of things are possible, but that sounds like an awfully long stretch to turn a clearly green vehicle into a blue one, when nothing else in the photo has a green bias.

  24. Considering I went through every single SUV available going back five years I for one am absolutely positive it is a ’23+ Pilot. Nothing else matches the lighting/reflector package and as we have learned from Jason, lighting is what determines which car is which.

    I’m so confident that I took the time to report it to the Capitola PD yesterday (crediting DT BTW). As I’ll tell anyone, I take this shit so seriously because my kid was a hit and run victim.

      1. Indeed. However, I don’t think the car is green. I suspect you’re being thrown off by the street light tree reflections in the hood which are of course green.

        I’m reasonably sure we’re looking at an Obsidian Blue Pearl EX-L. To me the pearly nighttime reflections all indicate said color. The pearl effect causes there to be lighter tone reflections which can be confusing.

  25. Ever since someone tossed the Pilot out as an option, I have been on board. I saw one that night and the taillights looked right when they were lit. The overhangs look right both front and back. It seems like it requires the fewest assumptions of things like aftermarket taillights or specific camera distortions.

    The Highlander comes in second. It’s the right shape, but the lights would need to be aftermarket.

        1. No, but if the right indicator is on at the moment of the still from the cctv camera, it could. I can’t decide from the photo whether the lower light is red or orange.

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