Bluffton man killed by driver who left scene. New witness disputes driver's account, report says

The driver of the vehicle that struck and killed a pedestrian on Buckwalter Parkway in January will not be charged, according to the Bluffton Police Department's final report.

Additionally, new information from a witness raises questions about which lane the driver was in, and whether the driver stopped the vehicle.

Charmaine Warthern, 43, was pronounced dead at the scene after he was struck by a vehicle around 10 p.m. on Jan. 16, 2018.

Dempsey Parrish, Warthern's roommate, told investigators the two were walking home from Station 300, a bowling alley and restaurant, and both had consumed alcohol.

Beaufort County coroner Ed Allen said Thursday autopsy results show Warthern had "elevated blood alcohol" levels, but declined to elaborate. The cause of death was blunt force trauma, Allen said.

Parrish said he was walking in the bike path and Warthern was walking on the white fog line next to the bike path.

The driver said she was driving in the left lane — furthest from the bike path — when she hit an unknown object she thought was an animal in the middle of the road. She said she pulled over and got out of the car. That's when an unknown white male began yelling at her and trying to open the passenger door where her 17-year-old daughter was sitting. Fearing for her safety, she got back in her car and drove away, according to the report.

She reported the incident from her home minutes later. She was the fifth and final person to report it.

She was not charged with leaving the scene of an accident because South Carolina statute 56-5-1210 says a driver of a vehicle involved in an accident that results in injury or death “may temporarily leave the scene to report the accident to the proper authorities."

The driver did not return to the scene. Investigators questioned her at her home.

A new witness mentioned in the investigation raises questions about where the vehicle was driving.

The witness claims she saw a vehicle in the right lane near the bike path — not the lane the driver claims to have been in — slow down without coming to a complete stop, then driving at "a high rate of speed" into the Woodbridge subdivision. The witness saw a man in the roadway and another man running toward him in "a state of panic," the report said.

The officer noted the discrepancies among the accounts of what happened, and re-interviewed the driver and her daughter.

Both reiterated the incident "in a very similar manner" to their initial interviews, the report says.

The "only evidence collected" from the vehicle was a piece of dark thread on the passenger side mirror, according to the report. The vehicle had "significant damage to the front passenger side bumper, windshield and 'A' pillar."

The facts of the case were presented to the solicitor's office, which confirmed the police department's belief that the driver "did not violate any state of South Carolina statutes before, during or after the incident."

The case is closed.

This story was originally published March 16, 2018 at 10:51 AM with the headline "Bluffton man killed by driver who left scene. New witness disputes driver's account, report says."