Mom and her 3-year-old in car full of kids killed in hit-and-run crash, WV cops say
.png "A man is in custody after a car crash left a mom and her 3-year-old daughter dead, police say.")
A man is in custody after being accused of driving away from a car crash that killed a mother and her 3-year-old daughter in West Virginia, police said.
Sara Pettry, 30, was driving on March 5 with her 3-year-old daughter, Brooklyn, and two other children when they were involved in a two-vehicle crash, according to a West Virginia State Police news release on March 7 and family.
Police said the other car, a gold Lincoln SUV, drove away from the accident. Officials did not disclose the cause of the crash.
Pettry and her daughter died at the scene, and a 7-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy were taken to hospitals, according to police.
State police were able to reconstruct the scene of the crash and identified the other driver as 54-year-old Kevin Graybeal.
Graybeal was taken into custody and charged with second-degree murder, leaving the scene of an accident causing death, reckless driving, driving suspended, obstructing an officer and assault, according to the release.
Police said after being arrested, Graybeal was taken to an area hospital for treatment of injuries they believe he received in the crash.
Loved ones have shared their condolences on social media for the loss of Pettry and her daughter.
“She will be missed so so much (and) I’ll miss her randomly texting me to just talk and going over in the summer to let our babies play,” Pettry’s cousin Laura Jeffries posted on her Facebook page. “I still feel like this is a dream, I can’t believe this has even happened.”
“Willie lost his beautiful wife and little daughter in a horrific car crash last night on his birthday,” another family member posted. They asked for financial support for Willie as he “learns to navigate life without them while raising his other two girls.”
Pettry was a mother of three girls and a resident of Naoma, around 50 miles south of Charleston.
This story was originally published March 7, 2023 at 4:52 PM with the headline "Mom and her 3-year-old in car full of kids killed in hit-and-run crash, WV cops say."
