Editor's note: Reddit picked up this story on Dec. 4, 2013, and the thread has generated more than 450 comments.

Seconds after fatally hitting a 63-year-old woman with her Honda Accord last March, Ashley Simone Chavez knew she'd done something terribly wrong.

Chavez and her passenger felt the crushing impact, then wind, rain and bits of glass from a hole in the shattered windshield pelting their faces. Yet the drunken friends continued on for about 2 1/2 miles to a grocery store parking lot, where they argued over what to do next.

Chavez, 23, pleaded guilty Monday and was sentenced to more than six years in prison for killing pedestrian Nancy Schoeffler, then drawing friends and family into the most elaborate hit-and-run cover-up that police investigators said they've ever seen.

Five other people were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 to 60 days for helping Chavez conceal her crime and fix her car with replacement parts they secretly drove in from as far off as San Diego.

Chavez and co-worker Angela Kaps-Collins attended the March 31 Portland Timbers game and had been drinking before, during and after the match, according to newly released police reports.

The two were headed toward Chavez's apartment when they struck Schoeffler about 11:20 p.m. as Schoeffler was on her nightly walk. She was crossing West Burnside Road near Southwest Tichner Drive, and obeying all traffic laws, investigators said. Chavez was going 7 to 10 mph over the speed limit, they said. The force threw Schoeffler about 130 feet.

Chavez didn't stop until she reached the QFC on Southwest Barnes Road.

Kaps-Collins told police in an interview after her arrest that the two argued in the parking lot: Chavez wanted to abandon the car and walk home -- then claim that someone had stolen her car and struck the pedestrian.

Kaps-Collins, 43, told police she demanded that Chavez drive her battered Honda home.

"I said ... 'We're taking care of this, we're going back to your place, we're not leaving the car, we're not leaving anything, we're not walking,'" Kaps-Collins said.

Within two or three hours, the two were back at Chavez's Beaverton apartment. Kaps-Collins had phoned her husband, Billy Eugene Collins Jr., who was on his way with a flatbed trailer. When he arrived, Chavez drove her car onto the trailer and Collins hauled it back to a barn at the farm where he and Kaps-Collins lived.

Around the same time, Ashley Chavez Googled the possible penalties for hit-and-run driving. She also phoned her mother and stepfather, who arrived at her apartment and Googled for news about the crash while the mother lectured her daughter about partying and changing her lifestyle, according to Kaps-Collins.

That evening, Chavez held the first of two meetings over successive days at the Sherwood home of her mother and stepfather, where she and others -- including Kaps-Collins and older brother Joshua Jeremy Chavez -- brainstormed options. Among them, investigators said, was that Ashley Chavez would claim she met a man at a bar, he drove her car, struck Schoeffler, then ran off. Another plan was to say her brother was driving and he'd take the rap.

Ashley Chavez even called a relative who works as an attorney for advice. The lawyer recommended that she turn herself in.

At times during the meetings, Ashley Chavez talked about going to police, and she was encouraged to do that by her mother, stepfather and boyfriend Christopher Michael Rhea, Kaps-Collins told police.

Eventually, Ashley Chavez and others agreed to fix her car and pretend as if they all knew nothing.

About a month later in late April, Rhea and Joshua Chavez flew down to San Diego, where they bought a windshield, radiator and hood, then drove the parts back to Oregon in a rented van. There, Rhea, Joshua Chavez and Collins enlisted help to wash Schoeffler's blood off the car and fix it up.

A sixth conspirator, Jose Alberto Torres, arranged for an acquaintance to travel to the barn and fix the windshield. He worked with Ashley Chavez and Kaps-Collins at Seterus, a loan servicing company.

Meanwhile, Portland police were actively seeking information about the unknown hit-and-run driver. Solara Schoeffler, Nancy Schoeffler's adult daughter, put out a plea for the public's help. On April 21, three weeks after the death, police and prosecutors handed out fliers to fans entering the next Timbers home game, thinking someone might have seen something after the last game. Announcers also displayed a photo of Schoeffler on a big screen and asked fans to call the tip line if they had any helpful information.

Among the fans: Ashley Chavez, who later told investigators she received one of the fliers, tucked it in her purse, but didn't give herself up.

Eventually, the pressure of keeping the horrible secret apparently was getting to Kaps-Collins. Over lunch on May 23, she broke down crying and told a friend that she and Ashley Chavez had been in a crash and the car was at her Corbett property. The friend contacted police the next day.

On May 28, Kaps-Collins was taken into custody and talking. Police discovered the Honda Accord on Kaps-Collins' property and some of Schoeffler's DNA still on a license-plate cover.

On June 1, U.S. marshals tracked down and arrested Ashley Chavez as she was getting into a car with Rhea in Bellingham, Wash., not far from the Canadian border.

On Monday, Ashley Chavez was led into a Multnomah County Circuit courtroom in shackles and a blue jail uniform. She pleaded guilty to second-degree manslaughter, driving under the influence of intoxicants, hit-and-run driving and hindering prosecution. She sobbed throughout the hearing, then turned to Schoeffler's family and said: "I just want to tell you I am so sorry for your loss."

Her co-defendants pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution or tampering with physical evidence. Josh Chavez and Rhea got 60 days jail; Kaps-Collins 40 days; Collins 30 days; and Torres 10 days.

Schoeffler's family didn't speak during the hearing, but Schoeffler's daughter gave a thumbs-up as prosecutors thanked police investigators -- including Officer Erik Koppang, Chris Johnson and Sgt. Todd Davis -- for cracking a difficult case.

After the hearing, Solara Schoeffler said the two months that passed before the arrests were wrenching. Learning details of the extensive cover-up have been "very traumatic," she said.

She appreciated those "who had the courage to speak to the family and look us in the eyes" during the hearing, she said, noting Joshua Chavez and Torres in particular.

She wondered what would have happened if Ashley Chavez had successfully crossed into Canada.

"If they didn't get the tip, ... then it could still be another unsolved case," she said.

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