Man killed in hit-and-run on Rockville Road in Indianapolis was on his way to the gym when crash occurred

INDIANAPOLIS — The stretch of Rockville Road where a driver hit and killed a man Tuesday has no sidewalks, but each morning, a man dressed in a FedEx jacket would walk more than two miles along the busy road just to get to the gym. "I didn't know his last name," Dr. James Bailey said. "I only knew Anthony." Dr. Bailey owns a dental practice in Avon and takes Rockville Road to work almost every day. A few months ago, he met the man who told him his name was Anthony. On Wednesday, officials with the Marion County Coroner's Office identified the person who died as 45-year-old Anthony Thomas. "It was snowing, and all of a sudden, I saw him," Bailey said. "And he had a bright reflective FedEx jacket on. So, I turned around and just picked him up." Bailey said he dropped Anthony off at the Crunch Fitness gym located nearby and figured it would be a one-off thing. Bailey, however, continued to see Anthony walking and gave him a ride several more times. He was such a fixture walking along the roadway that numerous people told FOX59/CBS4 they came to recognize him as well. Around 8 a.m. Tuesday, someone noticed a man in a FedEx jacket lying on the side of Rockville Road just a block or so east of the gym. The driver that found him called 911, and Anthony was taken to a local hospital before he ultimately died. Investigators confirmed he was hit by a vehicle, and its driver took off. "Sometimes, people just don't know that they hit something they thought they did," IMPD Public Information Officer Tommy Thompson said. "They look back, didn't know. We're asking if you think maybe you're involved or maybe you get home and you did notice some damage, please just come forward." It's unclear how long Anthony had been lying there on the side of the road before a driver found him. People who saw him often said he would generally do his walk to the gym around 6 a.m. A man, who asked not to be identified in this story, told FOX59/CBS4 that he often saw Anthony at the gym. The man discovered today that Anthony lived alone and worked for FedEx at the Indianapolis International Airport. He walked to work as well, sometimes logging more than four miles every day. "He just said he didn't have a car right now and just that he was working on it," Dr. Bailey said. Police are now working to find out who killed him and asking people in the area to check their surveillance cameras.