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

Associated Press / SFGate

[Fred Mertz]

No guess about it. That is exactly what happened.

I don't believe it happened that way, because there were eyewitnesses (on the highway, late at night in another car) that saw her car in flames veer off the highway. It's in one of Shermy's links way up this thread, it came out in the first few days of reporting.

[Fred Mertz]

Was Katherine Smith an arab/islame ?

She was a black woman aka African-American. I believe she was a church-going Christian.

[BJungNan]

it came out in the first few days of reporting.

...when much of the story is not known, the reporter is rushing to get out what they have and accuracy can be served with later corrections and qualifications.

This one is too obvious. Whatever was reported in the first few days can't change that.

[monday]

"I don't believe it happened that way, because there were eyewitnesses (on the highway, late at night in another car) that saw her car in flames veer off the highway"

Then she killed herself by dousing herself with gas? Wow, what a sick way of killing yourself?

[monday]

Guess she wanted it to look like an accident, but didn't know much about modern forensics?

[Fred Mertz]

Then she killed herself by dousing herself with gas? Wow, what a sick way of killing yourself?

I didn't say that. My theory is that the car she was driving (this car belonged to one of the ME men in jail - she was in the process of buying it from him) was booby trapped with some sort of fire bomb. I am unsure whether it was a time-fuse thing or whether it was command detonated. I would guess the latter.