Left inset: Hit-and-run victim Smaah Adam (Facebook). Center inset: Eli Hampshire, the Washington state man accused of killing Adam (KREM). Right inset: Hampshire’s girlfriend, Heather Langman, who allegedly helped conceal his vehicle after the fatal crash (KREM/YouTube).
A Washington state mother of six who worked as a chef was struck and pinned against her minivan by an alleged hit-and-run driver, dying in her son’s arms, police say.
Smaah Adam, 46, reportedly remained conscious long enough to tell her son, “I’m OK,” as he held her and watched her turn pale, according to court documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review.
Her reported final words, spoken before she was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead, were “help me.”
“A mom of six kids, gone,” Adam’s friend Maisa Abudayha told The Spokesman-Review. Speaking about the driver accused of causing the crash, Eli Hampshire, she added, “I want you to feel the pain that those kids feel right now.” Hampshire faces charges of hit-and-run vehicular homicide and tampering with evidence.
“Those kids lost their mom because of [a] lack of responsibility,” Abudayha said.
Hampshire and his girlfriend, Heather Langman, were arrested following the investigation into Adam’s death, according to court records. Langman is charged with first-degree criminal assistance for allegedly helping hide Hampshire and the vehicle from authorities.
Investigators say the couple covered Hampshire’s Ford Flex with a tarp and discussed abandoning it down an embankment. The vehicle was allegedly moved on a trailer pulled by a pickup truck.
The alleged cover-up began to unravel after police asked the public to identify a dark-colored Ford Flex believed to be connected to the crash, court documents say. A woman who had sold the vehicle to Hampshire the day before Adam was killed recognized it and contacted police.
The woman and her fiancé, who shares a child with Langman, called her and recorded the conversation for investigators after asking what had happened.
“Neither one of us were driving the vehicle,” Langman allegedly said. “You can’t tell the cops anything about it.”
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When her fiancé said they were “not taking the hit on this,” Langman allegedly advised him not to disclose Hampshire’s identity.
“Don’t even say who you sold it to, just say you sold it to someone … Give it a fake name for him right now,” Langman allegedly said. “I don’t know who the f— was driving the car. I just know there’s something going on with it and we’re getting rid of the car.”
According to court documents, surveillance video appears to show Hampshire approaching a curve in the Ford Flex, losing control and veering onto the roadside, where Adam was standing beside her minivan. He allegedly drove away without stopping and was captured on video leaving the vehicle to inspect the damage about three minutes later.
Adam’s son told investigators that his mother had opened the driver’s-side door when the vehicle struck her. He ran to her and held her as she bled from the back of her head.
Adam suffered a fractured femur and pelvis, internal bleeding and severe head trauma. She later died from her injuries.
Hampshire’s supervisor at a construction company contacted police after recognizing the vehicle in the public alert. He told investigators that Hampshire had been working on the front of the Ford Flex and making repeated trips to a dumpster.
Investigators searching the dumpster found a headlamp from a 2013 black Ford Flex and a piece of chrome trim, according to court records. A warrant for Hampshire’s phone provided location data that helped authorities trace the vehicle to a remote area of Stevens County.
The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Air Support Unit found the Ford Flex down an embankment near Buck Creek Road, The Spokesman-Review reported.
Hampshire and Langman appeared before a judge Monday. Hampshire was ordered held on $1 million bond, while Langman’s bond was set at $25,000.
Friends and relatives said Adam was an Egyptian immigrant who worked as a chef at Feast World Kitchen, a nonprofit restaurant in Spokane. The restaurant honored her with a tribute after her death.
“Your beautiful smile, your kindness, your generous heart, and the love you have to everyone around you will stay with us forever,” the restaurant wrote on Facebook. “Please keep Smaah, her children, and all of us who loved her in your thoughts and prayers.”
