Attorney Confirms William Wilson Heaton is the Hit-and-Run Suspect in Athens, Ga.

Emily Bowman lies in a hospital bed in Athens Regional, recovering from severe injuries she sustained in a hit-and-run accident on Feb. 16. The man suspected of hitting her, and then leaving the scene of the accident, is William Wilson Heaton, 22, of Cartersville.

He has yet to be arrested but does have an attorney who has been in touch with Athens Clarke County Police, according to a story in the Athens Banner Herald. The police have logged hundreds of hours, trying to piece together the events of the night for Heaton, through interviews and camera footage, to establish where he was, and when, and what he was doing.

Complicating the case is that, according to Lt. Don Eckert of the ACC Police Traffic Unit, someone tampered with evidence, the newspaper story says. He wouldn't say what the evidence was or who had tampered with it. or how they had done so. Helping in the investigation are detectives from the criminal investigations unit and special agents from the GBI, the story says.

On Sunday, on the Facebook page the Bowman family is using to keep people informed about Emily, her uncle, Neal Bowman, said Emily is still non-responsive though her eyes do open.

The 19-year-old Kennesaw University student has been taken completely off a ventilator and is now breathing through a tube placed in her trachea "that provides moist, oxygenated air," Neal Bowman wrote.

Someone from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta will visit on Monday to evaluate Emily for possible admission to the facility.

 "It'll be great if we can have her closer to home," he wrote.

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