GLOUCESTER CITY - An Audubon woman has told police she was the one who struck an East Greenwich Township resident after her SUV broke down and then sped away, authorities said Monday.
Deborah Cirulli, 41, abandoned her damaged Chevrolet Uplander in either Maryland or Delaware - an area where she has family members - and got a ride back to Camden County, according to the Camden County Prosecutor's Office.
Cirulli, charged with leaving the scene of a serious motor vehicle cash, aggravated assault with an auto and hindering in an apprehension, is accused of striking Angela Gattuso, 21, of the Clarksboro section of East Greenwich early Friday morning.
Gattuso's Honda SUV broke down on the first block of Broadway in this Camden County community. She called her father to bring his tow truck to help her. As he loaded her vehicle onto his truck about 1 a.m., Gattuso was hit by Cirulli's Chevrolet Uplander, according to the prosecutor's office.
Cirulli turned herself into the Audubon Police Department on Sunday evening. She decided to turn herself in due to the pressure of widespread media coverage of the incident, said Jason Laughlin, spokesman for Prosecutor Warren Faulk.
She was being held Monday in the Camden County Jail, Camden, in lieu of $25,000 bail.
Gattuso remained Monday in critical condition at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.
Authorities were still searching Monday afternoon for the abandoned Uplander, Laughlin said. No charges are contemplated against members of Cirulli's family for giving her a ride back to New Jersey, the spokesman said.