A woman who died along with her two children July 27 was involved in a car accident shortly before her car ended up in the Mississippi River under the Interstate 40 bridge, police said.
The accident caused the Jeep driven by Aisha Fair, 26, of Memphis to leave the roadway, said Todd Grooms, chief investigator for the Crittenden County sheriff's office.
Fair's car hit the rear drive tire of a tractor-trailer while she was changing lanes, Arkansas State Police spokesman Cpl. Liz Chapman said. Fair lost control of the car, spun 180 degrees and went into the grass. The car did not careen into the Mississippi River because of the accident.
"She continued driving east leaving the accident scene, on the grassy slope to where it runs into a gravel road called Robinson Road and then was not seen again," Chapman wrote in an email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Fair drove about 0.6 mile to the river, where her car ended up submerged in the river under the I-40 bridge on the Arkansas side, Grooms said.
Media reports based on information from other emergency response agencies previously indicated the woman drowned in a nearby lake, Hopefield Chute.
Fair and her boyfriend had gotten into an argument that morning and she left the house with her two children, Grooms said. The man told police he was concerned about her and her undisclosed mental-health issues.
A passer-by on a walking trail noticed Fair's body on the shore of the river and the tail end of the car sticking out of the water, Grooms said. The children, ages 4 and 7, were found when the Jeep was pulled out of the river.
Police did not identify how Fair ended up in the river, or whether she intentionally drove into it.
Metro on 08/03/2018