When Nikki Reed didn't make it home for her youngest son's birthday party, friends and family feared the worst.
An injured man trapped in a car wreck that killed his girlfriend managed to crawl back to an Indiana roadway to signal for help, three days after the deadly crash, authorities said.
Nikki Reed, 37, left her Seymour home early Friday to pick up her boyfriend, 39-year-old Kevin Bell, from Dover, Pennsylvania, loved ones said.
The pair promised to be back in time for Reed’s youngest son’s birthday party at 2 p.m. Saturday, so when neither made it to the house or answered their cell phones, friends and family feared the worst.
“I continually called my mom and her boyfriend’s phones to see if I could get them to answer,” Reed’s daughter, Brooklyn Reed, wrote in a post on crowdfunding site YouCaring.
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Troopers on Tuesday responding to a one-vehicle crash on US 50 near the Jennings-Ripley County line found Bell on the roadway, a spokesman for Indiana State Police said.
Bell had been driving Saturday when the 1999 Ford Explorer ran off the road, traveling down an embankment and hit a tree head-on, police said. The wreckage was not visible from the roadway, authorities said.
Reed, who was still in the passenger seat, died instantly upon impact, officials said.
Bell was taken to St. Vincent-Jennings Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries, WAVE reported.
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Investigators are still probing the crash.
Loved ones were devastated by Reed’s unexpected death.
“We all hoped and prayed so much for her to come back to you all safely ... She was definitely an amazing person who was taken from us all way too soon,” a friend wrote to Brooklyn Reed on Facebook.
“It breaks my heart that you and your siblings have lost your mother,” one donor posted on YouCaring, which had raised $240 of its $5,000 goal as of Wednesday.
“I don't know what happened or how it happened,” Reed’s heartbroken daughter wrote. “All I know is that I want this to not be true, I just wish it was a dream! I love my mom so much! I wish she was still here so I can hug her and tell her I love her one more time!”
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