3rd Orange County crash victim identified. Highway Patrol named wrong person at first.
Law enforcement officials released the correct name of a third victim in a fatal Orange County car crash after identifying the wrong man earlier in the week.
Robert Leon Hester, 65, of Cedar Grove, was killed in the crash just before 5 p.m. Tuesday on N.C. 86, north of Hillsborough, the N.C. State Highway Patrol said in an update Thursday.
The driver of the van that crashed, Francesina Alveta Whitted, 57, of Durham, was killed when the van crossed the center of the two-lane, rural highway and ran off the road, hitting a tree.
Tyesha Tyshell Edwards, 31, of Mebane, who also was a passenger, was killed. Highway Patrol spokesman Trooper Brian Martin said Whitted and Edwards were wearing seatbelts, but Hester, who was sitting in the back seat, was not.
The crash was so “horrific,” Martin said Wednesday, that the N.C. Medical Examiner’s Office had to identify Hester using his fingerprints.
Investigators are not sure why Whitted drove off the roadway, according to a news release. They do not think she was speeding or impaired at the time of the crash, it said.
A small memorial of pink and yellow flowers, with a single heart-shaped balloon, was placed at the site Wednesday.
A 2-year-old girl was the sole survivor of the crash and was being held for observation Wednesday at Duke University Hospital, where she was in stable condition, Martin said.
The child is not biologically related to the adults who died, he said. The hospital does not release updates on the condition of pediatric patients, a spokeswoman said.
The Highway Patrol Initially reported that a man from Hillsborough, Anthony Bowman, was killed in the crash. Bowman’s friends told The News & Observer in a Facebook message and posted online, however, that he was dropped off at a gas station before the crash.
The N&O’s efforts to reach Bowman were unsuccessful.
The investigation is continuing.
This story was originally published September 26, 2024 at 1:19 PM with the headline "3rd Orange County crash victim identified. Highway Patrol named wrong person at first.."
