Sunday marked one year since the hit-and-run crash that killed TJ Kapan, a young father on Chicago's Northwest Side. Like so many victims' families, Kapan's mother said they have still not heard any updates from Chicago police.
On April 23, 2022, authorities said Kapan, 25, was riding his motorcycle on Irving Park Road near Lockwood Avenue in Portage Park when a BMW sedan hit and killed him. The driver fled the scene.
"He had such a lively spirit. He had this incredible energy to live," Kapan's mother Nancy Briguglio said. "This last year without him has been the hardest part of my life, because it's just so hard to live without such a beautiful person as him."
Kapan left behind two children: 8-year-old Delilah and 5-year-old Yakub. Briguglio said what she admired most about her son was the way he took to fatherhood.
"He's such a great dad. He loved taking them to the zoo, to the museums," Briguglio said. "He just spent so much time with them. He loved being with his kids. They were his pride and joy."
Chicago police said Monday that there were no new updates on the case: no one was in custody and the investigation remained ongoing.
Kapan's family is far from alone. The crash that killed him was one of more than 35,000 hit-and-runs across Chicago in 2022, according to city data.
Records obtained and analyzed by NBC 5 Investigates revealed that CPD made arrests in just three out of every 1,000 hit-and-runs in 2021. Even some cases with seemingly obvious leads - like a license plate or even a vehicle left behind - have gone cold.
Since Kapan was killed, Briguglio said Chicago police won't talk to her family - a pattern found in crash after crash.
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"The Chicago police, it's been nothing but a nightmare, because they don't follow up. They don't call," she said. "You know, as a mother, you just want answers. You want justice."
"We call and call and they don't give us answers. They're rude to us. They hang up the phone on us. I don't understand, where the sympathy is not there," she continued.
Kapan's family marked the anniversary of his death on Sunday with a memorial at the intersection where he was killed.
Briguglio said their interactions with Chicago police only add to their pain. She said any answers or even updates would help her family heal.
"It's hard for us to move on without answers and if we get closure, if we get answers, justice for TJ, it will help us to move on," she said.
And for the person who killed her son, she wants accountability.
"How could you leave my son to die? And you're walking free and you got away with it? And that's what frustrates me with the Chicago police, that they're letting this person get away with it."
