Photo Courtesy: Mark E. Ross
TROY, Ohio (KTVU) - Mark Ross was in despair after receiving a phone call at 3 a.m on Sunday that his teenage sister had been killed in a car crash.
The Indiana man, desperate to be with family members in Michigan and without a car, reached out to a friend and asked for a ride to Detroit so he could be with loved ones.
He admits they were speeding through Ohio, when flashing lights appeared behind their car to pull him and his friend over.
And he braced for his already distressed situation to get worse.
In a Facebook post he wrote, "I knew I was going to Jail due to a petty warrant."
In addition, his friend reportedly had a suspended license and an outstanding warrant as well. So Ohio State Highway Patrol officers took the driver into custody and had the car towed.
According to Ross, law enforcement in Wayne County, where his warrant was issued, refused to come out to take him into custody "because of the distance."
So the grieving brother was left stranded in Ohio.
Ross said he dissolved into tears before an officer.
"I explained to the officer that my sister had died and that I needed to get to my mother asap. I broke down crying."
What happened next surprised him and gave him reason for hope.
"He REACHES OVER AND BEGAN PRAYING OVER ME AND MY FAMILY," Ross wrote on Facebook.
But the compassion from this man he had just met did not end there.
The trooper offered to drive him 100 miles to get him to his family in Detroit.
Ross wrote, "Everybody knows how much I dislike cops, but I am truly (grateful) for this guy. He gave me hope."
Ross is calling his little sister. Eliza Fletcher an angel.
The family has set up a GoFund me page to help with burial costs.