10:59 AM CDT on Friday, June 2, 2006

By SHELTON GREEN / KVUE News

Department of Public Safety Investigators believe they have found the vehicle involved in deadly hit-and-run that occurred in Buda last week.

Authorities seized a Mazda pick-up truck and took it to the DPS crime lab in north Austin.

Trooper Santiago Montez said he was hoping for a swift investigation of a hit-and-run last Friday.

A motorist on Interstate 35 in Buda found the body of a man who had been riding a bicycle on the northbound frontage road.

The rider was hit by a car, drug 60 feet and left for dead.

The only clue investigators found within a 50-yard radius of the scene was the piece of broken headlight.

On Wednesday the DPS acquired a search warrant giving investigators authority to seize the truck in question.

The victim of the hit-and-run was also identified Wednesday when his fingerprints were matched to former inmate Gregory Mark Anderson, 48, of the Calhoun County Jail in Port Lavaca.

It is still not known where he was coming from, or where he was going the night he was killed.

Authorities said reliable tips from television viewers led to this major break in the investigation.

I'm a police officer. I believe I was raised right. I take responsibility for my actions, and I wish everybody else would. Luckily those concerned citizens are those type of people," said trooper Montez of viewers who helped lead police to the vehicle.

DPS investigators have not made an arrest.

Test results on the truck should be released from the crime lab next week.