Services are Saturday for a Marine gunnery sergeant who was killed this week in a hit-and-run on South Main Street in Bellefontaine.
Arrangements for Gunnery Sgt. Monica Plank, 34, were made public this week as Bellefontaine police on Tuesday asked the public for help to find the driver that hit the woman early Sunday as she and her husband were walking home from the 68 Grill.
The Planks, of Stafford, Va., were on leave and had come to Ohio to visit Chris Plank's family. They were staying with his mother and had lunch Saturday in West Liberty with his grandparents and their five children.
Bellefontaine Police Chief Brandon Standley said the Planks had a disagreement at the 68 Grill, and she decided to leave.
Chris Plank, also a gunnery sergeant, was walking behind his wife and saw her get hit. She was pronounced dead three hours later at a hospital in Columbus.
It happened too fast for him to get a vehicle description, Standley said. The department is checking security cameras from nearby businesses, the chief said.
GySgt. Plank was born in Uruapan, Michoacăn, Mexico, to Jaime and Margarita (Legorreta) Chavez, who now live in North Hills, Calif.
She also is survived by her children, Jocelyn, Adriana and Gabriel Nuño as well as Skylah and Baylie Plank; sisters Brenda Ochoa of Arizona and Laura Campos of California, and a brother, Gustavo Chavez, also of California.
GySgt. Plank was stationed at Quantico, Va., where she was a sergeant instructor at the Officer Candidate School.
Having served 16 ½ years, she had been deployed to Afghanistan, been a mechanic on Huey and Cobra helicopters, and was a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C. In her spare time, she was an avid runner who had completed several marathons.
Visitation is 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the West Liberty United Church of Christ in West Liberty, Ohio. The funeral at the church begins at noon.
Interment will be at the Fairview Cemetery in West Liberty with full military honors provided by the U.S. Marine Corps.
Eichholtz Daring & Sanford Funeral Home in West Liberty assisted the family with the arrangements.
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