Tennessee State Highway Report Confirms Crash Did Not Kill Woman Who Died In Flaming Car

Associated Press / SFGate

[RCW2001]

Tennessee State Highway report confirms crash did not kill woman who died in flaming car
WOODY BAIRD, Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, March 5, 2002
©2002 Associated Press

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/03/05/national2227EST0835.DTL

(03-05) 19:27 PST MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) --

A state Highway Patrol report released Tuesday confirmed a driver's license examiner charged in a bogus license scheme was not killed by the impact of her car ramming into a utility pole last month.

Investigators are still awaiting a coroner's report on the cause of Katherine Smith's death. Smith, 49, was found Feb. 10 burned beyond recognition in her car about 20 miles from her Memphis residence.

Witnesses told the FBI that the car was ablaze before it crashed into a utility pole. Smith had been scheduled to appear in court the following day on charges she helped five Middle Eastern men get licenses illegally.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Capt. Jimmy Erwin said an investigation determined Smith was traveling just over 20 mph, which he called a survivable crash. He did not to speculate on the cause of the fire.

Erwin said the few pieces of her clothes recovered from the car showed traces of gasoline.

"This was not a traffic fatality," Erwin said.

Memphis FBI spokesman George Bolds said Tuesday that the cause of the fire remains undetermined.

"We know she was alive but not necessarily conscious after the impact with the pole. She did breathe in superheated gases from the fire," Bolds said.

Smith was arrested five days before her death along with the five Middle Eastern men. She was accused of taking payoffs for helping them get driver's licenses without proper documentation.

Smith had been released on her own recognizance. The other suspects are being held without bond and were behind bars when Smith died.

The men are charged under federal law with illegally trying to produce identification documents.

©2002 Associated Press  

[motexva]

I have no doubt that she deserved to die (painfully) for her treason

Maybe somebody else felt the same way . . . as easy to believe that she was offed by some terror cell, it's equally believable this was an act of vigilante justice, emphasis on the justice.

[zog]

---there's a third possibility as to potential perps in this case. She might not have been operating in a vacuum at work, ie, by herself. Anyone else maybe currently still in government who was part of the scam might have offed her, or arranged to have her offed to protect their involvement. Chances are pretty high she would have turned states evidence as maybe some sort of deal was offered for her full testimony.

So that makes three completely different possible perps per motive.

[Fred Mertz]

Your third possible theory is very plausible.

[twigs]

I think your theory is the more plausible. The terrorist cells seem to have a completely different MO. This seems to be more the work of local officials who have something to hide. Unfortunately. That also means that our enemies have insiders working with them.

[mancini]

Zog's theory should be kept in mind as this investigation progresses . . . if it's not stopped dead in its tracks, that is.

[grammymoon]

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[mancini]

Anybody have any ideas on why she would have been driving so slow?

Call me crazy, but I think if I suddenly caught on fire, my foot would automatically come off the gas pedal . . . but that's just me. :-)

[zog]

--have to make a confession here. There are a fourth and fifth and sixth possible/potential "perp" as well that I didn't list. I will only offer a clue. The clue is, step back, look at motives, potential motives, any credible potential motives and very importantly, do not only fixate on 'drivers licenses for sale", keep that in mind as just "part" of seemingly unconnected or barely connected over-all "patterns' that are occuring in the world. Think of much higher motives than just shutting up someone selling faked ID.

I don't want to actually list them and get flamed constantly, that's gotten old. Some things can be discussed here, some can't, this is obvious so I follow the rules the best I can. I know I bend the unwritten ones, though, this is an example of such bending.

oh well.

[twigs]

I must admit that I do not know the motives you suggest, but I have never believed this was a terrorist activity. It just sounds too much like the incidents that seem to happen particularly in the south, for example around the people that were involved with our last president. I do think there's a lot more going on here than we are aware of. I just don't know what. I'm not suggesting, BTW, that this had something to do with X42. Rather, it's the MO of what happened to people surrounding him. It seems to be a part of a larger picture that people are eliminated when they know too much--about something.

[Alabama_Wild_Man]

Hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............

Looks like ol' Slick Willie's "Body Count" just had a new addition. . .

[csvset]

Incinerating folks that provide fake id's to potential jihadists or any other type of infiltrators isn't a bad idea.

I guess the question remains as to who did her in and why.

[monday]

"Wouldn't 20 mph be an unusually slow speed on this kind of road? Anybody have any ideas on why she would have been driving so slow?"

Just a guess? How about Perp. knocks victim unconsious, soaks with gasoline, points vehicle toward telephone pole, shifts transmission into drive, and finally tosses match into victims lap? Vehicle reaches 20 mph just before it hits pole?

[BJungNan]

A car on fire, traveling at 20 mph, occupied by a women that died before her car hit a pole? And they still have not determined the cause of death?!

Prop her up behind the will Abdul. Now I light fire in back seat of auto to give time for you to put car in letter D. Then we go. Surely they will think an accident has come about. And even if they should think otherwise then that is okay too as this infidel will never identify anyone - including us - in this world again.

M U R D E R !!!

[Howlin]

Was she on her way to meet somebody? She wasn't just "going home"?

[Fred Mertz]

I'm not certain, but she was either on her way to meet someone or she was on her way home after meeting someone(s). The investigators haven't said anything about it other than they were trying to find witnesses that saw her late that evening.

So, it is my theory based on what I've read on this case thus far.

[Howlin]

Thanks. As if this case isn't suspicious enough. We need to form a FR Detective Agency.

[Fred Mertz]

We've already got one with thousands of members, or haven't you noticed?

[Howlin]

I meant for money; obviously, we're WAY ahead of most of these people.

[BJungNan]

Just a guess? How about Perp. knocks victim unconsious, soaks with gasoline, points vehicle toward telephone pole, shifts transmission into drive, and finally tosses match into victims lap? Vehicle reaches 20 mph just before it hits pole?

No guess about it. That is exactly what happened.