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The mysterious case of the Aug. 8 death of 25-year-old Tia Poklemba of Bonita Springs is troubling. How someone could be so brutal to another human being and leave her for dead on a residential street in the middle of the night in San Carlos Park indicates an evil almost beyond words.

Troubling as well is the strategy used by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office on one aspect of the investigation.

When officials on Aug. 14 first released to the public a photograph of a car, a tan Cadillac, that may have been involved, they did not say where and when the surveillance picture had been made. The setting appeared to be a gas station, but which one?

No matter to Larry King, chief spokesman for Lee County Sheriff Mike Scott. King says tips received by the Sheriff’s Office as well as the CrimeStoppers hot line have led to a warrant for a 22-year-old San Carlos Park man on a charge of leaving the scene of an accident involving a fatality.

King says the initial withholding of the site — eventually identified as the 7-Eleven at College Parkway and U.S. 41 — was smart police work. He says responses to the generic photograph can be more objective and therefore valuable to investigators than tips that may come from witnesses responding to what school test administrators might call a prompt. “By withholding those details our detectives were able to expedite the investigation — gathering evidence and additional statements without prejudice,” King writes in an e-mail to the Daily News.

We appreciate King explaining the thinking that went into that decision. It seems based on luck.

The Sheriff’s Office and other law-enforcement agencies can cut off potentially valuable tips by being coy with citizens who, the record shows, are eager to help.

We like to look at it this way:

Contrary to what we may see on television, cops are not psychics. They depend on tips.

Likewise, people who want to help the police are not psychics either. They need to know what the cops need.

The way to get good information is to be specific.

Investigators ought to invite all the tips they can get, and then do the real police work of sorting them out — the good from the bad, the valuable from the chaff.

Putting out too little information can hurt the investigation. The longer time goes on, the colder the trail can get.

Remember, citizens who are troubled by crime want to help.

When investigators on Aug. 9 released the picture of the man at the Tiki Bar in San Carlos Park who, investigators say, was talking with Poklemba that night, there was no withholding of site information then.

So why withhold the address of the gas station? Someone who was there might have had his or her memory jogged by the photo. Someone may have seen the driver at the pump or at checkout. Someone might have seen or heard something. The opportunity to get that kind of information seems too good to have been passed up.

Some of the official statements put out by the Sheriff’s Office have been troubling because they are confusing.

The agency has alternately said the hit-run suspect, Luis Gonzalez, is of interest because he was seen with Poklemba at the bar earlier that night or because they left the bar together. Big difference.

The Sheriff’s Office epartment says “the collision may or may not have been a traffic crash.” When asked to explain, King says, “It’s still under investigation as a traffic crash — evidence still left to be processed.”

In our own, more plain language, the investigation continues.

Tips can be phoned to Detective Mike Carr, at 477-1000, or CrimeStoppers, which offers anonymity and a reward of up to $1,000, can be reached at 1-800-780-TIPS.

Everyone will be monitoring the Sheriff’s Office’s progress on this case. Every further clue — unprompted or otherwise — ought to be welcomed and the tipsters thanked.