Police still seeking hit-and-run driver

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 24, 2005 11:35 PM PDT ∞

SCRIPPS RANCH ---- U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Anne Klokow had planned to start a family soon with her husband. Instead, she is returning early from duty in the Iraq war to deal with his death.

Patrick Michael Klokow, 29, also a Marine captain, died Tuesday when an unknown hit-and-run driver struck the triathlete as he bicycled to work at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot in San Diego, authorities said.

The Scripps Ranch couple wanted to start having children after Anne, a helicopter pilot assigned to the Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, returned from deployment, said Richard E. Klokow, Patrick's father.

His son had already been decorated for service at the start of the Iraq war, earning his captain's bars in the field.

"My wife and I are grieving like never in our lives," Richard Klokow said, his deep voice breaking as he spoke by phone from the Sunnyvale home where he and his wife, Myrna, live. "He's just a great, wonderful man, and not because I'm his father. Morally sound. Respected people. Even though I'm his father and 80 years old, he taught me a lot."

An artillery officer, Patrick Klokow commanded the unit that teaches instructors who train recruits at MCRD. He worked at times at Camp Pendleton.

After the fatal crash on Kearny Villa Road, police impounded a damaged Mercury Villager mini-van owned by a middle-age Mira Mesa resident who was driving in the area. The man was questioned and released, police said.

Detective Sgt. Jeff Fellows said the driver is scheduled for polygraph testing today and the van will be checked for evidence.

"We taped paper over the windshield before we towed it to protect any evidence that might be there," Fellows said.

Klokow was struck from behind at more than 50 mph, the sergeant said.

"He didn't have a chance," Fellows said.

Richard Klokow, a four-year Marine who was on Guadalcanal in the Pacific during World War II, said his 6-foot-tall son decided in high school that he wanted to join the Corps.

While at the U.S. Naval Academy, Patrick Klokow captained the academy's baseball team to a division pennant and met Anne. They married four years ago in the academy's chapel.

Richard Klokow didn't want to talk about whoever left his son dead on the pavement.

"It gives me nightmares to even think about it," he said.

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com.

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