Suzanne Jackson yesterday recalled cradling her injured husband on the roadway near Honolulu airport, begging him not to die.

For a period she described as "longer than eternity," Jackson urged her husband of four years to "just hang on, you can't leave us like this."

City emergency medical personnel rushed John Jackson, 36, to The Queen's Medical Center. The Air Force lieutenant colonel died in the emergency room, the victim of an early morning hit-and-run last Nov. 10 on North Nimitz Highway between Ohohia Street and Camp Catlin Road.

Jackson's Harley Davidson motorcycle had broken down and his wife and son had gone to help him bring it back to Hickam in a trailer.

A man and woman ran from the 2002 gold Chevy Astro van that struck Jackson and his son, 18-year-old Michael Quintero, as they were putting lights on a motorcycle trailer hitched to a red Mustang that Suzanne Jackson was seated in.

"A woman got out of the van, stepped over my son who was lying hurt on the ground and ran," Suzanne Jackson said.

Police have the Chevy van and know who the registered owner is but need information on the driver and passenger to make a criminal case.

Suzanne Jackson is moving to Colorado Springs, Colo., tomorrow with her son and 16-year-old daughter, Breeanna Quintero. Yesterday she made a public plea for closure through Honolulu CrimeStoppers.

"I know shock and adrenaline flow took over for them to run," Jackson said, "but I believe they should have come forward by now."

Jackson said she is brokenhearted six months after the 3:40 a.m. accident, unable to sleep at nights for more than a couple of hours and enduring daily what she calls "daymares."

Jackson carries memories of the "stress relief" motorcycle rides on the back of her husband's Harley twice or three times a week, the pride she felt when he earned his second master's degree shortly before the accident, his promotion, and their future plans.

She describes her grieving as "stoic" and attributes it to her Native American roots as a member of an Apache tribe from Albuquerque.

"Sure, I ask why (it happened) every day, when he was doing everything right — wearing a bright orange safety vest, had all our car doors open, the hood up and flasher on," Jackson said of her husband, an intelligence specialist who was slated for deployment to Iraq.

Hickam neighbors Maj. David and Toni Schlosser said Jackson shows little outward emotion of the hurt she feels.

"She's secluded herself and I know it's very lonely for her because they did everything together," Toni Schlosser said.

Anyone with information about the accident can call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellphone.

The Jackson case was among four fatal hit and runs investigated last year and one of two that remain unresolved. Arrests are hard to come by in such cases without witness accounts or confessions.

Police also said 18 of 22 non-fatal hit and runs from 2007 and six cases from January through May of 2008 remain open.

Sgt. Kim Buffett, Honolulu CrimeStoppers coordinator, said police are working on a proposed bill that would hold registered owners more accountable for crimes involving their vehicles.