(WSBT) A local mechanic helped police find clues in a deadly hit and run accident.

A man was riding his bike when someone hit him in Elkhart. Investigators found a piece of the car at the crash scene. Police say that evidence helped them track down the alleged driver.

It happened on State Road 19 around 5:30 Monday morning on the city's west side.

Police say 42-year-old John Collins of Elkhart was riding his bike to work. He was hit by a passing car. That car continued on and left the scene.

Collins was taken to Elkhart General where he later died.

Police initially looked at the cars in a nearby parking lot where Tim Gray was working at a job site.

“They came through, and they got out and they were just looking at all the front ends of the vehicles here on the job site, to see if there was any damage," Gray told WSBT News. "They didn't say much. They just said it was a hit and run."

Police found the parts of the car at the scene and then fanned out over the city searching for it.

But it was just a short time later that they located the vehicle involved in the hit and run accident in the parking lot of a restaurant on N. Main Street in downtown Elkhart.

By chance they went to a local garage and asked mechanic John Darrigan if he knew what kind of car it could be based on the auto part they found.

"When I looked at it I thought of what type of car I thought it might come off of,” Darrigan said. “It was like a mid '80s Oldsmobile."

Then he walked outside near a restaurant parking lot looking for a car like that to give police an idea of what to look for.

"I just wondered if there was any of those out here I could look at to see if it would fit it, and I walked over to the restaurant out here and there happened to be the car the part came off of," Darrigan explained.

Police questioned the driver after they found him inside the restaurant. They aren't releasing his name.