Alzheimer's Researcher Hit by Car in Ohio, Dies

A Cleveland professor and renowned Alzheimer's disease researcher died after being hit by a car, and the man suspected of hitting him also was found dead, authorities said Monday.

Mark A. Smith, 45, was struck as he walked along a road at about 2 a.m. Sunday in Bainbridge Township, police said. Investigators said they found the car that hit Smith about a mile away. The 50-year-old driver, Daniel Neesham, was found dead inside, Chief Jon Bokovitz told The [Willoughby] News-Herald.

Police said they were still investigating how Neesham died.

Both men lived in Bainbridge Township, in northeast Ohio's Geauga County.

Smith was a pathology professor at Case Western Reserve University and director of basic science research at the university's memory and cognition center. He also was executive director of the American Aging Association and co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.

He is listed as the No. 3 "most prolific" Alzheimer's disease researcher, with 405 papers written, by the international medical Journal.

Smith's body was taken to neighboring Cuyahoga County for an autopsy, and a coroner's spokesman said the manner of death was an accident and further results are pending.

Smith had been at Case since 1992. He studied molecular biology and biochemistry at Durham University's Hatfield College in England and earned his doctorate in biochemistry from Nottingham University in England in 1990. He also served as a research fellow at Sandoz Forschungsinstitut in Vienna, Austria, for two years.

According to the Case website, Smith has written hundreds of peer-reviewed manuscripts and chapters, and his work had been cited thousands of times by other researchers.