Passenger vanishes after quarrel, crash
Deputies, firefighters, and ambulance attendants searched for nearly an hour last week for a passenger with a long arrest record who allegedly grabbed the wheel of a vehicle, causing it to crash just south of Marion County Lake.
Driver Lindsay E. Marshall, 44, Peabody, apparently walked a mile from the accident, at 10:30 p.m. June 9 on Turkey Creek Rd., to the county lake office to report the incident 45 minutes later. Her passenger did not accompany her.
She apparently told dispatchers she had been thrown from the vehicle. However, deputy Larry Starkey’s report does not indicate she was ejected.
Starkey’s report said Marshall had been driving in an aggressive or antagonistic manner when her passenger, identified as Matthew M. Frazier, 26, also of Peabody, grabbed the steering wheel.
Marshall’s 2006 Honda Pilot veered off the roadway, ran through a barbed wire fence owned by Marjorie Summervill of rural Marion, and struck an embankment, causing air bags to deploy.
Ambulances from both Marion and Hillsboro were called along with Marion firefighters and rescue squad members and a second sheriff’s deputy. They searched for Frazier, who reportedly was intoxicated, but could not locate him.
Starkey’s report indicated no evidence of drinking by Marshall.
Marshall declined to be taken to a hospital and was returned to Peabody by one of the deputies, who subsequently met with Peabody police, presumably to alert them to watch for Frazier to return home.
Frazier has been jailed five times in the past 14 months.
He was arrested April 14 of last year on suspicion of domestic battery and June 11 of last year on suspicion of disorderly conduct, assault, and interference with a law enforcement office.
He was arrested a second time on suspicion of domestic battery Aug. 13, jailed for 10 days on municipal court orders Nov. 8, and arrested Dec. 27 on suspicion of aggravated domestic battery, theft, child endangerment, disorderly conduct, and interference with a law enforcement officer.
Starkey’s report lists no citations as being issued after the accident last week.
Marshall’s vehicle sustained front-end damage and had to be towed.