Police announced an arrest one day after the hit-and-run death of Sara Burack, a realtor known for reality TV appearances on shows like Netflix’s “Million Dollar Beach House.”
A 32-year-old woman from Virginia was arrested Friday afternoon and charged with leaving the scene of a vehicle death, Southampton Town police said. The charge is classified as a felony.
Burack, 40, was struck and killed near Villa Paul restaurant around 3 a.m. Thursday. Her body was found in the middle of Montauk Highway in Hampton Bays. Authorities report that the driver of a car struck her and fled the scene without stopping.
Paulette Corsair, a close friend of Burack for over a decade, spoke emotionally about the loss.
“This was an amazing person, loved by so many people,” Corsair said. “She was a genuine good person who did good and helped others.”
Corsair was at the hospital with Burack’s family and confirmed that Burack died from traumatic brain injuries sustained in the crash. It remains unclear where Burack was headed at the time of the accident.
Local resident Jeff Kirby is puzzled by why Burack was walking on Montauk Highway that late at night.
“Everything is closed along this whole way — there’s nothing open in Hampton Bays or anywhere around the area,” he said.
Burack had left her real estate career about a year ago and had become a frequent visitor to the Southampton Library.
Neil Szczygil, who has seen Burack at the library, said, “I know she was kind of going through a hard time living out here, not really having a place to go, so she was at the library a lot.”