POLK COUNTY, Wis. — Georgia Cobenais saw everything on that January night in 2014.
She saw a confrontation between her husband, Richard, and co-worker Benjamin Juarez spill into County Road E on tribal land in rural Western Wisconsin. She saw a dark Ford pickup zoom over the hill. And she saw that truck strike both men, sending one into a ditch and leaving the other in the main road.
"I witnessed my husband and Benjamin get killed," Cobenais said. "It is really hard to let it go."
Cobenais said her husband had attempted to take Benjamin's car keys before the truck hit them. According to investigators, snow prints on scene indicated that the driver and passenger of the Ford — either an F-150 or F-250 — stepped out of the vehicle before quickly rushing back and driving away.
The Polk County Sheriff's Office, working in tandem with tribal police, have checked out more than 1,700 of those Ford models. They've sifted through more than 100 leads in six years. They've interviewed eyewitnesses, including Georgia Cobenais.
But they've never found the driver or passenger involved in the hit-and-run, which devastated two families.
"I can't stay angry forever," Benjamin Juarez's grandmother, Shirley, said. "But it does hurt — a lot."
To generate interest outside of Western Wisconsin, Polk County Sheriff Brent Waak released a new social media video about the case on Friday. The eight-minute production, which includes interviews with both families and investigators, has been posted on Facebook in an intentional strategy to reach eyeballs across the country. The sheriff's office released a similar video about another cold case in August and found that it led to new tips.
"We're hoping to catch that big break," Waak said. "If anyone has heard anything about somebody killing somebody with a vehicle, we would like to develop that information."
Investigators believe there may be more witnesses to the hit-and-run and would like to interview anyone who saw anything that evening in rural Polk County. They also said it's possible there may have been more than one passenger in the Ford truck that night.
If they had stopped to aid the victims, they may not have been charged with a crime. By speeding away from the scene, however, they are now subject to felony charges and a potentially lengthy prison sentence.
The families are urging those responsible to surrender to police.
"Maybe if they come forward, or if the driver could come forward," Georgia Cobenais said, "maybe we could stop these nightmares together and move on."
The Polk County Sheriff's Office asks anyone with information to call 715-485-8300. Callers can remain anonymous.