Autopsy finds Va. truck driver killed in NC crash was drunk. Missing woman not found.

Danny McNeal, a 51-12 months-outdated driver with Moore’s Trucking in Virginia, was carrying a load of frozen chickens when his truck ran off the proper shoulder of Interstate 85 early around 2:12 a.m. Sept. 14, veering towards a guardrail and again towards the highway before crashing into the N.C. 86 bridge, regulation enforcement and EMS information showed.

His truck flipped in excess of, bursting into flames prior to it stopped on the appropriate bank under the bridge. Troopers approximated that McNeal was likely 65 mph — the legal pace limit — when he hit the bridge.

The household of Alyssa Taylor, 25, thinks she was in the truck when it crashed and also was killed, but the N.C. Freeway Patrol has officially established that only McNeal and his pet dog Blu have been associated in the crash, Patrol spokesman Sgt. Christopher Knox has claimed.

A toxicology report produced by the N.C. Professional medical Examiner’s Workplace on Wednesday afternoon confirmed McNeal experienced a blood-alcohol content material of .32 — four times the state’s authorized limit for impairment — when he crashed.

His formal result in of demise is shown as numerous blunt force injuries from the crash, whilst 60{e538325c9cf657983df5f7d849dafd1e35f75768f2b9bd53b354eb0ae408bb3c} of his overall body was burned in the ensuing hearth, the autopsy states. His right hand was clutching a “pink, metal bottle cap with no pinpointing markings,” it explained.

The report also famous that McNeal was observed on video surveillance footage obtaining liquor at a ease shop along his route that night, and that he was touring with one more particular person. Even so, only a person established of human continues to be was discovered at the scene and in the autopsy, it explained.

Taylor’s family has ongoing to glance for clues to her whereabouts, submitting a missing person’s report with the Accomack County Sheriff’s Workplace in Virginia and traveling to Orange County soon after the crash to seem for clues at the scene, in the wreckage and at a Sampson County landfill where by the truck’s cargo and particles was buried.

A mom of two from Oak Corridor, Virginia, Taylor texted her mother on Sept. 13 to say she was using with McNeal on his operate from Delaware to North Carolina and would be back again in two times, her aunt Lori Taylor has reported. But on Sept. 19, Taylor’s mother realized about McNeal’s crash although returning dwelling from a vacation to Florida.

Accomack County sheriff’s investigators have claimed that, dependent on the evidence they have collected, it does seem that Alyssa Taylor was in truck at the very least till it achieved Henderson, about a 40-minute generate north of Hillsborough.

Investigators also reviewed body digital camera footage from an Exmore law enforcement officer who spoke with McNeal and an unknown woman in his truck about parking the rig on the side of the highway right before they remaining Virginia Sept. 13. Taylor’s household has identified the woman’s voice as Taylor’s, police have mentioned.

A GPS tracker in McNeal’s truck and Alyssa Taylor’s mobile cellphone both of those pinged the identical area near Oak Hall, Virginia, exactly where he was supposed to choose her up, and also pinged the exact same spot in close proximity to Henderson hours later. Nevertheless, online video footage retrieved from freeway cameras only confirmed McNeal in the truck.

Taylor’s spouse and children also furnished authorities with a blanket and a flip-flop sandal retrieved from the wreckage that they said belonged to the lady, as nicely as an earring that her spouse and children explained she generally borrowed from her mother. Her mom discovered the earring in a storm drain below the bridge while combing through garbage a few months soon after the crash.

In late September, Virginia authorities ran out of fresh new sales opportunities, Accomack County Sheriff’s Lt. Joshua Marsh beforehand told The Information & Observer,

McNeal’s household declined to comment when contacted earlier by The N&O.