Shanice Dantzler-Williams, Stephanie Dantzler, and Miranda Dantzler-Williams.Photo: Courtesy of Rockell Ward
Stephanie Dantzler and her two adult daughters were inseparable.
“They were really close,” Dantzler’s mother, Betty Simmons, said Tuesday at a press conference in front of her home in Green Pond, S.C.,Live 5 Newsreports.
Dantzler, 53, and her daughters, Shanice Dantzler-Williams, 28, and Miranda Dantzler-Williams, 22, were together on Mother’s Day, May 8, when tragedy struck.
Pelletier was rushing to help a disabled motorist and didn’t have her lights or siren on when she turned onto U.S. Highway 17 from New Road, Charleston County Sheriff Kristin Graziano said at a press conference Tuesday.
Deputy Emily Pelletier.Charleston County Sheriff’s Office
The patrol car, a 2016 Chevrolet sedan, was going approximately 73 mph when it slammed into the Toyota, authorities say. Dantzler and her two daughters were killed as a result of the collision.
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Later that day, after a nearly month-long investigation, the South Carolina Highway Patrol announced that three warrants have been obtained for reckless homicide against Pelletier.
“I think we all agree on [that] speed was a factor in this particular incident,” Graziano said, Live 5 News reports. “These facts are undisputed, there’s absolutely no question about that. That has not changed.”
She remains on administrative leave with pay, according to Live 5 News.
It is unclear whether she has retained an attorney who can speak on her behalf. If convicted, she faces up to 10 years in prison on each count.
A South Carolina native, Stephanie Dantzler had worked for Brightline Extrusions of Summerville for the past nine years, according to heronline obituary.
A “firm believer of God,” she was an active member of Word for Life Ministries, where she served as an Outreach Director, the obituary says. “Passionate about her service and people,” it says, she recently adopted Chestnut Road in Walterboro, as an “Adopt a Highway Project.
“To know her was to know an angel on Earth. She had a heart of gold and [an] infectious smile, The bond she possessed with her daughters was inseparable and they were truly ‘best friends.’ You would never see one without the other.”
Miranda had just graduated from college the day before the crash, with a major in criminal justice. Shanice had recently received a promotion in her job as an accounting manager.
Grappling with the deaths of her daughter and granddaughters has been unbearable, Simmons said. “I woke up crying. I’m crying in my sleep. It’s not a good feeling.”
source: people.com
