A 47-year-old woman has been arrested on murder and attempted murder charges after she intentionally caused a head-on collision that killed her mother and injured her teenage son, police said.
On July 24, officers responded to a vehicle collision on U.S. Route 54 near Atlas Hill in Illinois. The incident involved a passenger vehicle crashing head-on into a semitruck pulling a trailer.
The occupants of the Toyota RAV4 were transported to hospitals after the accident. One passenger died from her injuries; the other, a teenage son, survived with injuries.
Police determined that the driver, Jamie Rhode of Griggsville, deliberately steered into the semitruck in an attempt to kill her mother and teenage son as well as herself. The deceased was identified as 73-year-old Cherie K. Wells, who was Rhode’s mother. The injured passenger was identified as Rhode’s teenage son.
Pike County Sheriff David Greenwood stated that Rhode had just picked up her mother from a nursing home before driving into the truck. “Her plan was to kill all three of them,” Greenwood said. “Her plan was to kill herself, and she was afraid of dying alone.”
The driver of the semitruck was not injured.
Rhode was booked into Pike County Jail on Tuesday.
