NEW LEAD IN HIT-AND-RUN DEATH OF WOMAN RESCUING CAT.

Byline: Karen Maeshiro Staff Writer

LANCASTER - News stories on the second anniversary of an unsolved hit-and-run death of a young woman who had stopped to aid a stray cat have opened a new lead for the California Highway Patrol.

CHP investigators said a tip from an anonymous caller led them to ``someone of interest'' in the death of Jannet Lynn Hair, a 21-year-old student at Antelope Valley College.

``I think it was a combination of things. This person had some knowledge. When the stories came out, they came forward with it,'' Officer Perry Heidebrink said.

As the two-year anniversary approached, Capt. Doug Rich, commander of the Antelope Valley station, renewed the call for anyone with information to contact the CHP.

Hair was run down about 9 p.m. Nov. 30, 2003, after stopping her sport utility vehicle on Avenue O near 155th Street East to rescue a stray cat from the middle of the road. A vehicle coming the other way struck her - and the cat - and kept going.

There were no witnesses to the collision because of the time of night and the dark, remote location: a two-lane road at the edge of Lake Los Angeles.

CHP officers said they received several 911 calls minutes later reporting a pedestrian having been hit and killed. Hair was dead when rescue crews arrived.

Pieces of the vehicle that struck Hair were left behind, leading investigators to believe she was struck by a 1994 to 1997 GMC or Chevrolet full-size pickup truck or SUV.

CHP investigators inspected nearly 2,000 pickup trucks and SUVs similar to the one that hit Hair, but found none connected to the case.

Hair had been studying for her certificate in American Sign Language because she wanted to help deaf children and had even been considering fostering a deaf child after she finished school.

She was a humanitarian and animal lover. She had three dogs, two cats, and a potbellied pig, all of which had been given to her by friends who knew she could not turn away an injured or abandoned animal.

Hair graduated in 2001 from Littlerock High School.

Karen Maeshiro, [phone]

karen.maeshiro(at)dailynews.com