FLYING HEAD EXPOSES HOPRROR
But before the police officer in Boise, Ohio, could wave down the driver, he witnessed a sight that will haunt him for the rest of his life.
As pickup truck veered suddenly into the path of an oncoming car and crashed, a woman's head flew out of the passenger window and landed on the road.
But the appalling sight was not the result of the accident.
It turns out that the driver of the pickup truck, Alofa Time, 50, had earlier allegedly killed his wife, chopped off her head, then driven away with it on the seat of his vehicle.
He smashed into the oncoming car about 6.30am on Thursday allegedly on purpose in a bizarre bid to kill himself.
He walked away from the wreck unscathed.
But the driver and a passenger in the car he hit were killed instantly - Mrs Samantha Nina Murphy, 36, and her 4-year-old daughter Jae Lynne Grimes.
Ms Murphy's other daughter, 8-year-old Syndee, was injured.
She is in a stable condition in hospital.
Mrs Murphy had been taking the girls to day care on her way to work.
'It was one of the more horrific and complex crime scenes in memory,' Ohio police spokesman Lynn Hightower said of the crash scene.
When police officers arrested Time at the scene, he pleaded with them to kill him.
They found a suicide note and US$300 ($480) for his own cremation, and another eight-page suicide note in the pickup truck, reported Ohio television station Fox 12.
Time allegedly also told the officers about murdering his wife hours earlier.
The police went to his home, where they found the headless body of Mrs Theresa Time, 47, in the garage.
At a court hearing on Friday, prosecutors alleged that Time had deliberately swerved his Dodge Ram pickup into oncoming traffic. The motive for his bizarre actions were contained in the suicide notes, they said.
ABUSIVE PAST
According to court records, Time has a criminal record for wife abuse in California.
He was also facing domestic battery charges for allegedly choking his wife in March. That trial had been set for 25 Jul.
He had also been barred by a court from having any contact with his wife.
But last month, after Mrs Time completed safety-planning classes at a local crisis centre, the no-contact order was lifted.
Time has been charged with first degree-murder over his wife's death. If convicted, he could face the death sentence.
For his role in the car crash, he was charged with two counts of second-degree murder.
At a court hearing on Friday, bond was set at US$1 million. A preliminary hearing date was set for later this month.
Criminal Background Check
|
