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Newly released details provide more perspective on a fatal hit and run.
Samantha Leighan Cannon, 19, of Barnwell, turned herself in to law enforcement on August 3. She is charged with hit and run with death, said Lance Corporal Brittany Glover with the S.C. Highway Patrol (SCHP).
“She did stop (after realizing she hit something) but did not report it,” said Glover of Cannon. Law enforcement didn’t specify whether Cannon realized she hit a person.
According to an arrest affidavit, Cannon was traveling west on Highway 64, near Bon Accord Place (near Sweetwater Country Club), when she “hit a pedestrian, resulting in his death. Major damage and bodily fluid was identified on the vehicle (2020 Toyota RAV4).”
The victim, 69-year-old Charles Eugene Brabham, was pronounced dead on Saturday, August 3 after being struck while walking east on Highway 64 on the westbound side.
Though Brabham was struck by the vehicle late Friday night, August 2, his body was not discovered until early Saturday morning, August 3.
A driver, who was traveling down Highway 64 on Saturday, August 3 around 4:53 a.m., called 911 after he “noticed a Walmart buggy broken apart on the side of the road and turned around to check on it due to him thinking someone might have been hurt that was pushing it. He then noticed the victim in the ditch not breathing,” according to an incident report provided by the Barnwell County Sheriff's Office (BCSO).
The responding deputy checked for a pulse but did not detect one. “The victim was cold to the touch and appeared to have been there for a while,” stated the BCSO report.
The deputy also noted in his report that he did not notice any vehicles around nor any parts to a vehicle. However, there was food items “slung all over the road.”
SCHP troopers soon arrived on scene and took over the investigation due to it being a hit and run, but sheriff’s deputies helped troopers search nearby Snelling for any vehicle with “consistent damages,” states the report. While patrolling the area of Seven Pines Road, a deputy was flagged down by the driver of a pickup truck, said Barnwell County Sheriff Steve Griffith.
“While patrolling Seven Pines Road near Seven Bridges Road, Deputy Kirby was flagged down by a truck. The driver of the truck reported that he saw about the accident on Facebook and reported” he knew who was driving the vehicle that hit Brabham, according to the BCSO report.
Deputies and troopers followed the witness (truck driver) to Cannon’s home where “she turned herself into a deputy” around 10 or 11 a.m., said Glover.
Sheriff Griffith said there were no other 911 calls regarding the wreck, other than the one made by the driver who noticed the Walmart buggy and the body. Though other people possibly saw the buggy, “he was the only one who took the initiative to stop,” said the sheriff.
Cannon was transported to the Barnwell County Detention Center but was granted a $25,000 surety bond by the magistrate judge on Sunday, August 4. She posted bond the same day and was released, according to online court records. She will appear in court on Oct. 14.
This collision remains under investigation by the SCHP.
