Nurse tries in vain to save daughter who was struck by hit-and-run driver

A Salem County nurse tried in vain Friday night to resuscitate her daughter, who'd been struck by a hit-and-run driver, then run over by a second car on a dark rural road.

Cathy Burns, 55, administered CPR to her daughter, Chelsea Burns, 25, on Woodstown-Alloway Road in Pilesgrove around 11:30 p.m., state police from the Woodstown barracks said.

But Burns could not revive her daughter, a waitress at a pizza restaurant and mother of a 3-year-old boy. Chelsea Burns was dead at the scene, state police said.

She lived in Pilesgrove with her parents, according to her uncle Joe Kowalewski, Cathy Burns' brother.

Cathy Burns had been searching for her daughter after hearing that she had been riding in her boyfriend's car and demanded he stop and let her out while they were having an argument, according to Kowalewski, 54, a banker from Marlton.

" 'Can you help me find her?' " the boyfriend asked Cathy Burns via his cellphone.

She got into her car and was searching the area when she came upon a line of stopped cars, Kowalewski said.

" 'What's going on?' my sister asked," Kowalewski said.

"Someone said a girl was hit," he said. "My sister, thinking, of course, it was her daughter, goes running up, saying, 'I'm a nurse, I'm a nurse.'

"She runs up to the crash scene and gives her CPR. But she couldn't revive her."

Kowalewski said his sister told him, "She was so lifeless when I got there."

State police said Sunday they were searching for the hit-and-run driver.

There was some confusion about the second driver who hit Chelsea Burns a few moments after the first.

Cathy Burns told her brother the second driver stopped after running over her daughter and phoned police. But state police said the driver, a woman they didn't identify, did not stop.

Investigators nevertheless learned her identity but have not charged her, state police said.

The argument between Chelsea Burns and her boyfriend, whom police did not identify, began when she had a seizure in the car, Kowalewski said.

He said his niece suffered seizures throughout her life, but he didn't know the cause.

The boyfriend called Cathy Burns to ask what he should do and she told him to bring Chelsea home right away, Kowalewski said.

But the young woman told her boyfriend she was feeling better and wanted to continue their evening out. He disagreed and said he was taking her home.

She got angry and told him to stop the car, then got out, Kowalewski said. The boyfriend somehow lost sight of her, he said.

That's when he called Cathy Burns to ask her to help him find Chelsea.

Kowalewski hastened to add that the family was supportive of the boyfriend, and that they believed he was trying to help Chelsea.

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@AlfredLubrano