"Well, Officer, I admit, he did seem to be a bit shorter."
Posted on 08/29/2004 8:48:12 PM PDT by Diddle E. Squat
A man who got into an accident after leaving a bar early Sunday morning drove several miles to his home and went to bed, his pickup truck parked in his driveway with the decapitated body of his friend partly hanging out the passenger side window, Cobb County police said.
Police said John Kemper Hutcherson, 21, of Marietta drove off a road soon after leaving a bar about midnight and hit a support wire to a telephone pole. The guide wire severed the head of his friend, Francis Daniel Brohm, 23, of Marietta.
Hutcherson then drove 12 miles to his home on Fox Hound Chase, where police found him Sunday morning in blood-splattered clothes.
A neighbor out on a stroll with his 1-year-old daughter called authorities after discovering the headless body in the parked truck about 8 a.m.
"It's hard for one to imagine that you would drive [several] miles from a crash site to your home, turning in various directions, and yet not know what has happened to a passenger sitting next to you in your vehicle," said Cobb police Cpl. Dana Pierce.
Hutcherson was charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, driving under the influence, failure to stop at an accident with death or injury and failure to maintain lanes. He was in the Cobb County Jail on Sunday night, held on $10,000 bond.
Police said that, before the two friends got to Runaround Sue's in Marietta late Saturday night, they had been at a house where they had gathered to watch a televised NASCAR event.
Brohm's father, Dan, said Sunday that Brohm, 23, was a mechanic who worked late on Saturdays and then met up with friends.
Police don't know how long the friends were at the bar but said the two left after Brohm felt sick.
Less than a mile and half from the bar, the pickup truck ran off Canton Road, traveled about 10 feet and hit the guide wire. Investigators have not yet determined how fast the truck was going when it crashed. Police would not say why Brohm was hanging out the passenger-side window when he was struck.
After the accident, police said, Hutcherson drove through a commercial and industrial district that changed to dark, narrow winding roads before reaching the two-story Colonial house where he lives with his mother and sister. He parked the 1992 Chevrolet Z-71 in the driveway leading to the house's two-car garage.
Except for the body in the passenger seat, the only thing amiss was the passenger-side mirror, which had been sheared off in the accident.
Later that morning, police found the severed head at the crash site on Canton Road.
The owner of Runaround Sue's said Sunday that the bar offers a courtesy van to take home intoxicated patrons. Before customers are allowed to enter, bar personnel check to see if they are inebriated, and the staff continues to monitor patrons' alcohol intake throughout the night, said owner David Ulmer.
"To my knowledge, these people weren't served alcohol at Runaround Sue's," Ulmer said. "It's unfortunate that we may have been the last stop they made before this horrendous incident."
Brohm's father described Francis — Frankie to the family — as a fun-loving person who had been friends with Hutcherson since high school.
"He was a very outgoing person who was very close with his friends and very close with his [two] sisters," Dan Brohm said.
Most residents in the subdivision where Hutcherson lives refused to talk about the crash.
Next-door neighbor James Q. Collier, a retired engineer from Lockheed, said he has known Hutcherson for almost 20 years. When Collier was laid up because of an ulcer a few years ago, Hutcherson would come by to help with household chores, Collier said.
"That kid has never been any problem," he said.
— Staff researcher Joni Zeccola contributed to this article.
Heads are gonna roll.
"Well, Officer, I admit, he did seem to be a bit shorter."
Yes....he was so worried about his sick buddy that after he contributed to his buddy's head getting lopped off....he went home and slept like a baby with headless pal still "resting" in the truck.
These kids were dog-drunk and maybe had whatever today's version of quaalude in them as well.
A sad story about oblivion.
I'll offer prayer and condolences, but I'll also offer another comment:
Alcohol is simply bad. No one should consume it. Around 10% of the population develops a serious alcohol problem, and the huge number of resulting deaths and ruined lives -- in vehicle and other accidents, domestic violence, neglected children, etc. -- is unacceptable. Every time someone who doesn't have any problem with alcohol takes a drink of alcohol, or makes a reference to casual enjoyment of alcohol, that person is broadcasting a message that using alcohol is fun, enjoyable, and harmless. And that message is inevitably being broadcast to a group, 10% of which will develop a serious alcohol problem, and many others of which will become victims of someone with a serious alcohol problem even if they don't have one themselves. Nobody ever became an alcoholic without taking a drink. Don't drink it, don't serve it, and don't tell your kids to "wait 'til you're older" to drink it -- tell them "never". If you can't have a good time without drinking alcohol, you're already in big trouble.
"I'll also offer another comment:"
Thank you for taking the time to write. I have found nothing in my life which so beguiled in the offer of fun, and delivered instead so much of sorrow, than alcohol.
Thanks to both of you for your wise and compassionate comments.
I'm fortunate to be only the third hand "victim" of alcohol. I've never had any issues with alcohol -- probably had fewer than 10 drinks in my life -- all in high school and early college -- before I figured out what a dangerous trap it could be. Neither of my parents had a "problem" with alcohol, though both were/are social drinkers. But my mother's biological father was an alcoholic, and it permanently messed her up psychologically, even though her mother left him when my mother was 4 (though not before my my mother witnessed a lot of domestic violence) and she saw him only rarely until he died from his drinking when she was about 12. The older I get (I'm 43), the more I realize how many psychological scars I carry as a result of growing up with my messed up mother and all the baggage her father's alcoholism left her with. Alcohol is NEVER worth it.
Congratulations on your 8 sober years -- and I wish you many, many more.
;0)
"I just can't see any jokes in this. The guys buddy was probably hanging out the window being sick. Driver was probably looking or worrying about him and inadvertentently swerved to the right enough to catch that guide wire. Nothing funny about this." --- Khurkris
I couldn't agree more.
"Yes....he was so worried about his sick buddy that after he contributed to his buddy's head getting lopped off....he went home and slept like a baby with headless pal still "resting" in the truck. ..." --- wardaddy
I hear this also; my simple beef: This is something that should not be joked about.
I would have hated to be the person who found the head. Ick.
Okay the jokes need to stop! There is absolutely nothing even remotely close to funny about this! Yes John screwed up and will be in jail for a long time, but he will also have to live with the fact that he killed his best friend of over ten years....(they were friends before high school). I went to school with both of them and know them on a personal level. To say the absolute least I am NOT amused! I will also add that the reporters have absolutely no right to give that much detail as to were John lived. It is sad that all of feel the need to be as childish and ignorant as you are! Think about what their families are going through right now.....is that funny?!?!? Put yourself in someone elses shoes before you resort to such tasteless humor...especially on a very sensitive issue. Think about Frankie's parents, they have to bury their son..................is this still funny to you???
I'm going to make a guess that you're a now sober alcoholic, becuase of all the people I know who are now sober alcoholics, all of them think alcohol is just bad, dangerous, and evil.
They can't conceive that some people can have just one or two drinks and stop. They can't conceive that some people can take it or leave it and don't "need" alcohol to have fun. They think the only way to prevent problems from alcohol is to demonize it and convince people to be teetotalers.
Everyone is entitled to their opinon, of course, and I respect yours. But don't become paternalistic.
You guessed wrong, and your guess is symptomatic of our society's unhealthy glorification of alcohol. If you read a bit further down , you'll see that I've never had an alcohol problem, and in fact have never been so much as "tipsy" in my life. I choose not to ingest this poison because I see the tremendous damage it does, both to those who ingest it, and to innocent bystanders who don't. Check out the statistics on deaths and serious injuries in vehicle accidents and domestic violence, and the huge correlation of alcohol use with these events.
It makes no difference that "some people can have just one or two drinks and stop" or "some people can take it or leave it and don't "need" alcohol to have fun." How come so many of these people NEVER have a party without alcohol? When was the last time you went to an after-work gathering with co-workers that didn't include alcohol? And at every gathering of the "some people", other people are becoming alcoholics (many of whom will go on to kill somebody while driving drunk, beat their wives, or beat/neglect their children) and "some people" are having too much fun being smashed to care.
Drinking alcohol is a lot like playing Russian roulette, and truly responsible people don't do either.
I hope you're not going to betray your handle and suggest another sort of neo-Prohibition.
Your friend is now a murderer. He has lost all rights to keep his identity and place of residence private. I hope they lock this drunk up for a very long time. BTW, you need better friends.
My comment was not in his defense. It was for his family (who are completely innocent). Don't think they won't get quite a bit of harrassment too.
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