Background: The intersection of McArtan Road and Elliott Bridge Road in Linden, North Carolina, the location of the crash (Google Maps). Insets (from left to right): Goldie and Sharon Marsh (Harnett County Sheriff”s Office).
A tragic incident unfolded in rural North Carolina when a 40-year-old woman allegedly caused a fatal car crash and subsequently fled the scene, leaving her passenger dead, according to officials. The driver, Goldie Marsh, reportedly contacted her mother for assistance following the accident.
Goldie Marsh is now facing multiple serious charges such as felony death by vehicle, felony hit-and-run resulting in serious injury or death, driving under the influence, neglecting to report the accident, and not wearing a seat belt as a driver, according to court documents examined by Law&Crime. Her mother, Sharon Marsh, aged 67, has also been charged with felony obstruction of justice, aiding and abetting, and resisting a public officer.
The charges are linked to the crash that claimed the life of 45-year-old Timothy McLean.
The crash reportedly occurred around noon on Saturday when Goldie Marsh was driving a gray vehicle with McLean near the intersection of McArtan Road and Elliott Bridge Road in Linden, North Carolina, as confirmed by the North Carolina State Highway Patrol and reported by Raleigh’s NBC affiliate WRAL. Allegedly speeding approximately 25 minutes north of Fayetteville, neither Marsh nor McLean were wearing seat belts.
According to court documents, the vehicle veered off the road to the left, hitting a culvert. Goldie Marsh is accused of abandoning the scene on foot after the collision. Responding troopers found McLean deceased at the site.
Authorities claim that instead of dialing emergency services to report the accident and assist McLean, Goldie Marsh contacted her mother to retrieve her. Sharon Marsh allegedly complied with her daughter’s request and subsequently misled investigators regarding the identity of the driver at the time of the crash.
The crashed car was apparently the elder Marsh’s, and she suggested to WRAL that her daughter, who she said has a history of using drugs, lied to her.
“All she did was call and say she was walking up the road,” the mother, who denies the charges against her, said. “I’m disappointed in her, very disappointed in her. She should have told me the truth when I picked her up that he was down there in the car, wrecked. But she didn’t.”
“I didn’t know he was dead until a state trooper called and told me a dead passenger was in my car. That’s the first I knew about it,” Sharon Marsh added.
Both women were scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning.
