A 28-year-old Sebago man was charged in the hit-and-run death of a Casco woman as she walked on Route 302 on Sunday evening.

Jeffrey Eugene Smith Jr., of Intervale Street, was charged Monday with leaving the scene of a personal injury accident resulting in death, a Class C felony.

Jeffrey Eugene Smith Jr.

Smith was arrested about 4:15 p.m. Monday by sheriff’s deputies and officials from probation and parole. Smith was on probation for a prior charge.

Investigators believe he struck and killed Lorna Nugent, 56, about 6:20 p.m. Sunday on Route 302 near Varney Road in Casco, the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office said.

The driver fled in the vehicle, which was believed to be a 2001 to 2005 Volkswagen Passat with significant front-end damage. Police said they had located the Passat by 3:15 p.m. Monday, but did not say where.

An hour later, they arrested Smith.

The precise circumstances of the crash remain unclear, but so far, police believe Nugent was walking on Route 302 and was struck by the vehicle as it was headed west. She was wearing dark clothing, and there are no street lights in the sparsely populated section of road where she was struck.

Cumberland County Patrol Capt. Scott Stewart said it was not clear in what direction Nugent was walking when she was hit, or what she was doing in the road.

Smith, who is on probation stemming from 2015 convictions for felony theft and felony domestic violence threatening, according to the Department of Corrections, has had no driving infractions since 2010, when he was cited for walking on the Maine Turnpike.

For the 2015 convictions, Smith was sentenced to 18 months with all but 60 days suspended on both counts, and to serve two years probation after his release. It was unclear whether those sentences were concurrent or consecutive, according to the Department of Corrections website. A man who answered the door at a home near the accident site on Route 302 said Nugent had been at his home before the crash Sunday night, but he declined to speak about it further.

The speed limit for that stretch of road, which has few homes or businesses on either side, is posted at 50 mph, 10 mph higher than along other stretches of Route 302 that are more densely populated.

Nugent, previously of Milo, had moved to Casco to live with her boyfriend of 18 months, Jon Thompson, said his sister-in-law, Kathleen Dennis, of Windham.

Dennis said Nugent was a multi-talented person who could as easily work on her car as do upholstery.

She said Thompson and Nugent were at the home of a friend who lives across from the crash site, and that Nugent was walking to get cigarettes at a convenience store located east of the crash site on Route 302.

Thompson declined to speak Monday, and Dennis said her brother-in-law is deeply upset by the crash.

“It was terrible,” Dennis said. “He found her.”

That area of Route 302 has a wide breakdown lane. Spray paint from the accident reconstruction team was still visible on the shoulder of the road, where investigators sprayed orange circles and drove markers into the asphalt. Farther west, more markings were visible encircling small stains where blood had pooled.

Cumberland County sheriff’s deputies returned to the crash site Monday afternoon to take more measurements, but they declined to discuss the case.

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