Woman driver held for hit-and-run death of Indian student

Priyanshu Agwal, a 23-year-old University of New Haven graduate student in New Haven, was killed on Oct 18, 2023

By Arun Kumar

More than 13 months after Priyanshu Agwal, a 23-year-old Indian student of University of New Haven was killed in a hit and run, Police have arrested Jill Augelli, a 41-year-old woman, in connection with the case.

Agwal, who was from Deoli in India and went to the US in 2022, was riding an electric scooter in the area of Whalley Avenue and Amity Road on Oct 18, 2023 around 11 pm when he was hit by a driver who left the scene, NBC reported.

READ: Indian American family subjected to racist tirade on United flight (December 3rd, 2024) 

The University of New Haven said Agwal was taking his final classes in business analytics to complete his master’s degree. In the year leading up to his death, he served as a business analyst intern with Caliber IT Solutions Inc.

New Haven Mayor Justin Elicker said that Priyanshu Agwal’s family described him as a person with a “big smile” whose “outgoing, charismatic personality” led to him having lots of friends.

He was “loved by many” and had “his whole life ahead of him,” Elicker said, adding that he was applying for jobs at the time of his death and had “big dreams” of a life in the United States.

Thanks to Priyanshu Agwal and his family deciding to donate his heart, he was able to save someone else’s life, according to Elicker. “And so that heart is beating in someone else’s body now,” Elicker said. “So even though he lost his life, part of his life is giving someone else a life today and that we’re grateful for as well.”

Agwal’s brother was emotional as he spoke during a news conference, thanked police and spoke about what the family has gone through in the months since losing their loved one, Hartford Courant reported.

“I just want to say I miss my brother every day,” Aman Agwal said. He still has dreams about his brother, which sometimes involve him questioning the decision to donate his heart. Other times, he said, he can see his brother riding away on his scooter “up in the sky.”

The surviving brother said he teeters between having good memories of his sibling and feeling guilty. The two used to spend a lot of time together clubbing, partying, studying and working together, he said.

Cell phone data, a series of street cameras and DNA helped police put together the case against Augelli, the Naugatuck woman accused of driving the car that struck and killed Agwal, according to New Haven register.

Augelli appeared in court — with Agwal’s brother and two uncles present — on Tuesday and the case was quickly continued to Jan 21.

While it took 13 months for police to arrest Augelli, on Nov 18, they identified her Nissan Rogue as the vehicle allegedly involved in the Oct 18, 2023 crash within just a few hours of the collision based on street camera footage, according to court records.

Police, aided by an FBI cell phone forensics expert, subsequently identified Augelli as the alleged driver of the SUV within days by comparing T-Mobile phone records that traced and compared communication towers data with camera sightings of the vehicle, according to an affidavit filed to obtain an arrest warrant.

Police also found extensive damage to the SUV consistent with having been in a collision and traces of Agwal’s DNA on the vehicle after Naugatuck police located it in the parking lot of Augelli’s apartment complex, the affidavit says.

Priyanshu Agwal sustained two fractured femurs, internal abdominal injuries and suspected head and spinal trauma in the accident, according to the affidavit.

An Oct 27 autopsy report by the state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner listed Priyanshu Agwal’s cause of death as “complications of blunt injuries of head, torso and extremities,” according to the affidavit.

A woman identified as Augelli’s sister called Naugatuck police in the early morning of Oct 19, 2023 and said her sister had texted her after taking “an excess of sleeping pills.” Augelli subsequently received medical attention, the affidavit states.

Augelli, charged with evading responsibility resulting in death. is being held on $100,000 bond, judicial records show.

Priyanshu’s brother, Aman Agwal, who had previously graduated from UNH and now works for a tech company in Idaho, attended Augelli’s court appearance with two uncles, including Rod Patel, who owns the Regal Inn Motel at 1605 Whalley Ave. near where the accident occurred. Priyanshu Agwal had spent time at the motel prior to the accident, and his mother and brother earlier had joined him there for dinner, Aman Agwal told police, according to the affidavit.

Aman Agwal said that while he now lives in Idaho, he plans to return as the case unfolds. Tuesday was his first time seeing Augelli and when he sees her, he sees the pain that his family is going through, he said on the courthouse steps after the hearing ended.