‘I feel like I have nothing left’: Family learns of man’s death days after fatal wreck

A man died in a car accident on I-285, and his family did not learn of his death until six days after the fatal crash, Channel 2 Action News reported.

Ryan Finch, 33, of Atlanta, was driving his 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche east on I-285 near the Flat Shoals Parkway exit when he allegedly hit the rear of a 2002 Toyota Camry on Sept. 13, according to a DeKalb County police incident report.

The Camry was forced off the road and into the woodline where it hit a tree, and its driver was not injured, the report said.

Finch’s Avalanche caught fire, and he was found lying on the ground next to the passenger side of the vehicle, the report said. He died at the scene.

Channel 2 interviewed Finch’s family on Thursday afternoon, and they said they were worried sick when he didn’t arrive that night. They filed a missing person’s report with Atlanta police the next day.

“Just (an) empty feeling,” Finch’s fiancée, Chasity Strozier, told Channel 2. “I feel like I have nothing left.”

She said police never reached out to them, but the DeKalb County Police Department said Finch’s contact information was outdated.

Police told Channel 2 that “DeKalb County detectives made several attempts to contact the family. When police conducted a database search of the victim’s license tag, the phone number associated with it was the victim’s cell phone and the address was not current.”

She ended up finding out he died after a family friend called several tow yards in metro Atlanta and found Finch’s Avalanche.

“He did everything for ... everybody around him,” Strozier said. “He was so giving and so loving.”