Three months after her husband Alan Kobren was killed in College Park, local landlord Janet Firth has the emotions one would expect – heartbreak, loss and unspeakable grief – but she also deals with disappointment.

Firth arrived at a gruesome scene on University Boulevard in June: just minutes before, as Kobren was jogging along the road, a car driven by a university alumnus struck him, killing the Merrill Lynch executive. But in the months that followed, Firth said, the Prince George’s County Police Department has not called her once, let alone closed the case.

“It’s my understanding, having been there at the scene, that there were a lot of people there,” she said, speaking in a hushed, pleading tone. “And people saw something. We need people to come forward. Somebody saw something. Somebody knows something. We need somebody to come forward. We could use their information.”

Police have said repeatedly they could not find that alumnus Puja Patel, 22, had committed any wrongdoing in striking down Kobren. And without witnesses, a police spokesman said, there was no way to know whether Kobren’s death was accidental or the result of negligence.

Firth’s pleas for witnesses – who police said pulled over their cars at the scene but left without providing personal information – combined with an independent private investigation funded by Kobren’s brother have done little to shed light on an otherwise sketchy case.

County police are still trying to determine whether Alan was jogging along the shoulder or the main road when he was struck, said Maj. Kevin Davis, who commands the district where College Park lies. Spencer Kobren said his brother was an experienced runner, however, and would not have been jogging in a roadway.

Kobren said his main frustration is not knowing what Patel, who declined to comment for this story, was doing when she is driving. If she’d been text messaging or talking on a cell phone, he said, charges could be filed that Patel was driving negligently. He hired a private investigator soon after his brother’s death, when he realized “something was wrong” with the police investigation.

Among the items he finds perplexing: that more witnesses haven’t come forward even though the incident occurred on a straight stretch of University Boulevard around 7 p.m. in broad daylight, and that a prior relationship existed between Patel and one of the officers who responded to the scene, which Kobren said could be slowing down the investigation. Maj. Davis acknowledged the relationship, but denied it had played any role in the case.

“This young patrol officer, who is basically a rookie, does not have the capacity to be involved in an investigation that we don’t even touch,” he said. The officer’s role at a fatal motor vehicle accident would be to direct traffic, he said.

Spencer Kobren, host of a nationally syndicated consumer advocacy radio show that addresses male pattern baldness, has gone from consumer advocate to victim’s advocate in launching a new weekly radio show called Highway Justice, which can be heard locally on WJFK-FM. He’s also offered a $10,000 reward, and is considering hiring someone to reconstruct the scene of his brother’s death.

“All I want to know is what happened to my brother,” he said. “All I want to know is why he was left by the side of the road to die like a dog and nothing was done.”

Police contend something was done, however, and Maj. Davis noted the investigation is still active. He said the department has a separate division that investigates these types of incidents, that the process is intricate and lengthy, and it isn’t surprising that the case hasn’t been closed after three months, he said.

“It’s frustrating, but it’s not unusual,” he said. “It takes that long because we want it to be complete, we want it to be thorough.”

These days, Firth, who rents out about 50 off-campus Knox Box housing units, is focused on being a mother, and is hopeful Spencer Kobren’s efforts will lead to closure in her husband’s death investigation.

“Our son is turning five, and I’m continuing to make sure he has all the love and nurturing he needs,” she said. “My priority is our son and we are lucky that we have uncle Spencer to lead the effort.”

Contact reporter Brendan Lowe at lowedbk@gmail.com.