WACO, TEXAS — It was a normal day in May 2008 for Lenda Port.
She spent most of her night bowling with friends, however, when she came home and went to sleep she was awoken by her phone ringing multiple times.
“She goes, it's Bree, and I said, “Well, where is she?”” Port said, remembering the night her sister called her. “She kind of hesitated and she said, “She's gone.” I said, no… and I just screamed.”
Her sister was calling to tell her that her daughter, Bree Breichner, was struck by a hit-and-run driver and died by I-35 in Bruceville Eddy.
“I have to tell myself all the time that she died instantly, so she wouldn't suffer from everything that was done to her,” her mother said while tearing up.
The Bruceville Eddy Police Department arrested the now 52-year-old Jackie McLean, who most recently worked at the Bell County clerk's office, in connection with the incident.
However, she was never indicted.
“It was just horrible,” Port said. “It was I was just angry, I was just angry.”
Determined to deliver answers to the young woman’s family, the McLennan County Sheriff's Office Cold Case unit took on the case within the past year.
Thursday, McLean was taken into custody and charged with manslaughter and failure to stop and render aid in a sealed indictment.
“Our guys never let up on this case,” Sheriff Parnell McNamara at the McLennan County Sheriff’s Office explained. “They investigated over and over and over, and we're able to get enough evidence to make this arrest in what we feel like is a very good case against this individual.”
However, the fight isn’t over, and Port said she won’t rest until justice is completely served.
“I am so grateful to all of them for supporting me in the past few months and really, really stepped up to get justice for Bree.”
25 News reached out to the Bell County Clerk's Office and spokesperson James Stafford said the county can’t comment on an open investigation.
