A 23-year-old woman tragically lost her life while driving on a North Carolina road when a rock was thrown through her windshield, causing her to crash into a nearby home.
Brittany Elizabeth Ferguson was driving on Conley Road in Burke County when a rock struck her car and hit her fatally in the head, WRAL reported, citing information from the North Carolina Highway Patrol.
Ferguson’s sedan swerved off the road and crashed into the porch of Abigail Rumlet, who shared the traumatic experience with the local outlet.
Rumlet was returning home from church that evening when she encountered the shocking scene at her home, where Ferguson’s body remained inside her 2006 Ford Taurus.
“Bad. It was just horrible,” Rumlet said.
“The house can be replaced or repaired … Just closure. That’s what I want for the family,” she added.
The victim, who resided in Morganton, was reportedly on her way to visit her sister when she was senselessly killed.
“I hope that whoever did this act will come forward. And man up to what’s happened here, because it’s just an awful tragedy,” Rumlet said.
Signs placed by Ferguson’s family on Conley Road plead with the public for help in identifying the suspect or suspects, believed to have been driving a white Chevrolet S-10 single-cab truck.
Witnesses informed police that they saw the truck with a man riding in the bed in the vicinity following the incident, the New York Post reported.
Ferguson’s tragic death occurs mere days after two young Colorado men pleaded guilty to their roles in a similar rock-throwing incident that resulted in the death of Alexa Bartell in April 2023.
Zachary Kwak, 19, accepted a plea deal last week for first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and criminal attempt to commit assault, facing up to 32 years in prison, prosecutors said.
Following Kwak’s plea, Nicholas Karol-Chik, also 19, pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder, criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder, along with a crime of violence sentence-enhancer, the Denver Post reported.
A third 19-year-old, Joseph Koenig — who is suspected of throwing the fatal rock at Bartell — has pleaded not-guilty to his first-degree murder charges and is scheduled to stand trial in July.
