A South Carolina father and his 6-year-old daughter died side by side from hypothermia while walking for help after a vehicle accident on their way to visit the boy’s mother, officials said.
Jason Murph, 42, and his daughter, Michelle, were found dead by a police K-9 about 50 yards from their crumpled and charred pickup truck in a field on Dec. 18.
Autopsy results were inconclusive, but the Calhoun County coroner made a determination of hypothermia based on weather conditions.
“It wasn’t below freezing at all, but because of the wind and the rain, they got really cold, and I think it became urgent for them to try to get help and try to get shelter,” Coroner Donnie Porth said. news station19.
The bodies of the father and daughter did not have any suspicious injuries, and no foul play is suspected to have caused their deaths.
Jason Murph, 42, and his 6-year-old daughter, Michelle, died of hypothermia in South Carolina. via WIS News 10 Murph’s Toyota Tundra crashed and caught fire as he tried to get it out of the mud. via WLTX
Murph and Michelle had left Blythewood to visit the boy’s mother in Orangeburg 60 miles away, but they never made it there and were reported missing on Dec. 16, according to station WFAB.
Murph’s estranged wife told the Richland County Sheriff’s Department that around 8 p.m., she called him to say that she and their daughter had been in an accident after their vehicle went off the road, according to an incident report cited by News19.
The wife said Murph told her he didn’t know where he was during the call. The woman reported hearing their 6-year-old daughter screaming in the background before her father hung up.
Murph and Michelle had left on December 16th to visit his mother but never arrived. RichlandCountySheriffsDepartment/Facebook A surveillance camera at a gas station showed Murph’s pickup truck about an hour before he called his estranged wife to say he had been in an accident. via ABC News 4
Wife called Murph again but he didn’t answer. She also texted him to call 911 but received no response.
Surveillance video from an Exxon gas station shows Murph’s silver Toyota Tundra pickup truck just over an hour before the man made his last call to his estranged wife.
The county coroner suggested that Murph’s truck got stuck in the mud and he made numerous attempts to free it, which started a grass fire due to tire friction.
Michelle Murph was found dead next to her father after they both got stuck in the mud. Jason Murph/Facebook
Murph and his daughter then apparently got out of their damaged and burning vehicle to put out the fire, and then tried to reach the interstate on foot for help, but instead found themselves sucked into the mud near the creek.
“I think they were walking together, and unfortunately, he was heavier than her, he sank into the mud, and the more you struggle, the deeper you go,” Porth told News19.
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