Florida one-star Google review leads to arrest in fatal hit-and-run death of David Adams

A one-star Google review left for a Florida tree service business helped investigators crack a deadly hit-and-run case involving a couple on a motorcycle who were struck by the driver of a white pickup truck, according to authorities.

The nighttime crash on US Highway 301 on June 9 killed David Adams, 59, and badly injured his girlfriend Tiffany Fletcher, 38, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

In the hunt to find the pickup driver who fled, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Department reportedly recovered surveillance footage from nearby businesses that captured the truck.

In the video, investigators spotted the name of a tree service, called Arbor Pros, on the truck’s tailgate.

When an investigator punched the name into Google, a revealing clue emerged.

“Just doing this review because the owner or son of the owner had a big accident on 301 and Balm River involving a couple on a motorcycle,” the review read, according to court documents reviewed by the Washington Post.

“The thing is he [fled] the scene and all I got was his company name on his white truck.

“Please if anyone seen his truck with a hit on the passenger side that’s the bike that he hit and ran like a coward. putting this here in case he didn’t Turn himself in yet.”

A detective working the case then found Chad Stall’s name on a business card for Arbor Pros Tree Service and a sheriff’s sergeant later stopped by his mother’s house, according to the Tampa Bay Times, citing an affidavit.

When Stall, who is the registered agent for the company, arrived in the pickup truck, the 29-year-old denied he was driving the truck at the time of the crash and claimed one of the workers told him the vehicle was struck while parked at a worksite, according to the affidavit.

He then insisted he was at a job site the day of the crash and used an Uber to get home, leaving the truck at the site.

But his tale began to unravel when the detective asked Stall to show him calls or texts to verify his story, the affidavit alleges.

The man behind the Google review, Ismael Gonzalez, told authorities he followed the pickup truck after it hit the motorcyclists and at one point pulled beside him to demand he go back to the crash scene, the newspaper reported.

The two drivers then drove into a shopping plaza parking lot.

“He said the driver told him, aggressively, that he knew he was in a crash and was going to go back,” the affidavit said.

Gonzalez left before he knew that the driver went back because the driver was making him nervous.

The witness identified the man behind the wheel as Stall, court docs stated. 

Stall is facing charges of leaving the scene of a crash involving death and leaving the scene of a crash involving serious injury, the Tampa Bay Times reported.