Driver dies 22 days after vehicle crash

Published 10:53 am Thursday, February 16, 2017

By LANCE MARTIN
rrspin.com

A Como man involved in a Jan. 19 wreck on the outskirts of Woodland died Friday, Feb. 10, according to the North Carolina State Highway Patrol.

The crash occurred on Indian Branch Road about six miles north of Woodland off of US 258 in the Ashley’s Grove community, according to an initial report by Trooper J.T. Keeter.

Donald Ray William Manley, 35, was traveling southeast on that road shortly before 3:45 a.m. when the vehicle he was operating crossed left of the centerline and struck a ditch. The vehicle overturned and came to an uncontrolled rest on the left side of the road.

Northampton County Sheriff Jack Smith said there were items in the wrecked vehicle which may have been from break-ins in the area.

In an article published Jan. 24 by the Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald, Captain Patrick Jacobs of the Northampton Sheriff’s Office Criminal Investigation Division said deputies responded to four breaking and entering calls on the east side of the county in the early morning hours of Jan. 19. The breaking and entering’s included a residence, a vehicle, a hunting club, and two utility trailers.

Jacobs added that criminal investigators executed a search warrant in the afternoon hours of Jan. 19 where several items of evidence were recovered that are believed to possibly have been stolen from the breaking and entering cases reported by the victims earlier that same day.

The sheriff’s office continues its investigation into the rash of break-ins reported on Jan. 19.

(Lance Martin is the Editor and Publisher of www.rrspin.com. This story is published with his permission.)