MIDDLETON (WKOW) – A Middleton hit-and-run victim’s daughter used smart phone technology to help track the crime’s suspect.

Authorities say 64-year old Shirley Benjamin was seriously hurt and her dog killed when they paused their walk on Lisa Lane last month and were hit by a car, with the driver taking off.

Benjamin’s daughter, Ashley Garrett, tells 27 News she was at her mother’s hospital bedside on the day of the incident. “And it just dawned on me, where’s my mom’s phone?” Garrett says.

“We all have iPhones, which is really important to our entire family that we are all in the same ecosystem,” Garrett says.

Garrett was aware of the app, Find my iPhone. She deployed the technology from the hospital. “And it pinged in Baraboo,” she says.

“It was a little less than an hour since it happened…and the timeline from having to get from Middleton to Baraboo, it seemed like a real time update,” Garrett says.

Court records state the app’s technology pinpointed an address. It was the location of DB Auto Body. Business owner Wes Laymon says the date of the incident coincided with customer Fabio Costa Alves, 30, coming in with a damaged car. “He just said he hit a deer the night before,” Laymon says.

Authorities say Costa Alves later took the car to a shop specializing in windshield glass repair. “Benjamin’s cellphone was located stuck in the windshield under a windshield wiper,” according to a Probable Cause Statement. “Costa Alves says after the windshield was fixed he threw Benjamin’s phone in the trash,” the court record states.

Laymon says his technician missed the phone on the windshield. “He just didn’t see that, he looked at the damage,” Laymon says.

Authorities say Costa Alves said he did not see the woman and her dog before hitting them. “Costa Alves advised he did not stopped (sic) because he was scared due to not being from this country,” the Probable Cause Statement maintains.

Costa Alves was arrested and charged Wednesday with felony Hit and Run -Great Bodily Harm. He is free on $2,000 bond.

Garrett says her mother has been released from the hospital, is using a walker and continues her recovery. Garrett tells 27 News she always knew the iPhone app was available in the event a missing phone was even tied to a crime against a family member. “I never wanted to have to use it, but I’m so thankful we were raised to be those critical thinkers, those problem solvers…to make sure if it did happen, we’re okay.”