Missing toddler Quinton Simon’s grandfather killed in hit-and-run on side of Georgia highway

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The grandfather of missing toddler Quinton Simon was killed in a hit-and-run accident in Georgia on Wednesday.

Henry Dale Moss Sr, the paternal grandfather of the missing 20-month-old child, was struck by a vehicle after he pulled over to the side of the road due to a flat tyre on Highway 23 near Girard, police said.

The vehicle that hit Moss then fled the scene.

He was found on the side of the highway around 7.20am and was pronounced dead at the spot.

"Preliminary investigation indicates the male was struck while in the roadway by an unknown vehicle," said Burke County sheriff's office captain Jimmy Wylds in a news release.

Authorities are yet to identify the vehicle involved in the accident and have sought help from members of the public in identifying the driver.

"Sheriff Williams is offering a reward for the information that leads us to the individual responsible for this hit-and-run fatality."

His death comes as the third tragedy to befall the family of Henry Moss Jr – the 24-year-old father of missing toddler Quinton – in a month. According to WSAV-TV, the toddler’s paternal grandmother died last week.

Quinton vanished on 5 October from his home in Savannah, a coastal city on the state border between Georgia and South Carolina, and is now presumed dead and buried in a landfill, Georgia authorities have said.

His mother, 22-year-old Leilani Simon, is a suspect in the case but has not been arrested or charged. The authorities notified the family on 12 October that they believe the toddler is dead.

After searching for weeks, the Chatham County police on Wednesday announced that it’s unlikely Quinton’s body will ever be found.

"After thousands of hours of investigating and gathering evidence, everything still points to Quinton being recovered in the landfill and his mother, Leilani Simon, as the primary suspect in his death and disappearance," the police department said in a statement on Twitter.

"We have spent two weeks digging through thousands of tons of garbage. We knew going into this landfill search, the odds of recovering Quinton’s remains were low," the department said, adding that most landfill searches "do not end in a recovery".