HILLSBOROUGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- A Hillsborough neighborhood is baffled, and the Orange County Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help after someone who lives there discovered a badly beaten, unidentified man left for dead in a ditch last Friday morning.
Wanda Johnson said just before 8 a.m. on Nov. 14 a neighbor told her she had trash in her ditch. When she and her son walked outside of their home in the 4200-block of Station Road, they discovered the man.
"She thought it was a bag of trash lying there, because he was a tiny guy," Johnson said. "His eyes were like swollen shut, and he was just moaning."
Johnson said the man was wearing pants, a shirt, and one shoe, with the other shoe off in the grass away from his body, which was beaten beyond recognition."
"There was just blood everywhere. It was really cold that morning so we went and got some blankets to cover him and my son called 911," Johnson told ABC11.
Within minutes, the paramedics arrived and asked Johnson if she knew the man. She did not. Earlier she had checked him for ID but could not find any. Paramedics rushed the man to the hospital where he's currently listed in critical condition with brain and other internal injuries.
Investigators do not know exactly what happened, but they believe someone threw the man out of a vehicle. They believe whoever was driving sped off from Station and University Roads toward U.S. Highway 70 because of fresh skid marks outside the scene.
Orange County Sheriff's investigators are not releasing the victim's name out of concern for his safety. They have revealed that he is a black male in his early 30s, who is from Durham. They also say whatever happened to him originated in Durham, but exactly where in the city or how is a mystery.
"I cried. I cried because I can only imagine what that's like," said Johnson. "I just hope they find out who did it and hope he's all right."
The sheriff's office is asking anyone who might have seen anything suspicious last Thursday night, Nov. 13 into early Friday morning Nov. 14 to call them.