Florida Man Strikes Girlfriend With Car, Goes To Bar: Cops

FORT MEADE, FL — A 40-year-old Florida man was accused of striking and killing his girlfriend with his Dodge Neon Saturday night and then leaving her body in the road as he returned to the bar where the couple had been drinking earlier in the night.

Charles Polen of Fort Meade was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death, DUI manslaughter and driving without a license after the body of his girlfriend was discovered by another motorist on Scenic Highway around 11:22 p.m.

The victim was identified by the Polk County Sheriff's Office as 40-year-old Deborah Hershberger of Fort Meade.

Brian Bruchey of the sheriff's office said Polen returned to the crash scene on foot and had to be restrained when he started asking if the victim was Hershberger. Deputies later found Polen's blue 2002 Neon in the parking lot of the bar with front-end damage and blood on the vehicle.

"When confronted with the findings, Polen admitted that after Hershberger left the bar, he began driving the Neon to look for her," Bruchey said. "He said that as he was driving east on Scenic Highway looking for Hershberger on the north side of the road, when he struck something."

"Polen and Hershberger lived together in Fort Meade," Bruchey told Patch. He said Polen was arrested in 2019 for battery and failure to appear for battery and marijuana and paraphernalia. Polen was arrested earlier in Ohio for failure to appear for assault, non-support of a child and domestic violence.

Polen told sheriff's deputies he thought he hit an animal at first on Saturday night but then saw the body lying in the road and believed it to be his girlfriend.

"Rather than check on the victim, he drove back to the bar and awaited the arrival of law enforcement ... then walked to the scene to check if the person was Hershberger," Bruchey said.

The motorist who discovered Hershberger's body told the dispatcher she thought she may have been responsible for hitting the woman about a mile east of School Bus Road in Babson Park.

"She said that she saw a person lying in the roadway and swerved to avoid contact," Bruchey said. "During the investigation, deputies determined that the caller's vehicle did not hit Hershberger."