Was missing Va. woman in I-85 truck crash? | Community

In the early morning several hours of Sept. 14, a tractor trailer carrying chickens struck an overpass on I-85 close to Hillsborough, then overturned and burst into flames. By the time the fireplace was extinguished by the Orange Rural Hearth Office, the trailer was poorly ruined, the truck’s taxi was entirely absent, and scarcely additional than the transmission was left from the engine.

The driver, 51-calendar year-aged Daniel Eugene McNeal of Exmore, Va., was killed in the crash, along with his dog. The affect of the truck and the fireplace that followed was so damaging to the bridge’s structural integrity, the N.C. Dept. of Transportation has saved the overpass closed.

And now, a Virginia relatives is seeking solutions and support about a cherished just one they imagine was on the tractor trailer at the time of the deadly crash. 

Alyssa Nicole Taylor, 25, of Oak Hall, Va., has not built speak to with a family members member considering the fact that Sept. 13. In accordance to a series of messages in between Taylor and the truck’s driver on Sept. 13, McNeal was intended to select her up on his way from Delaware to North Carolina.

ALYSSA: “Can you get me nowadays? I’ll be in Oak Hall.”

DANNY: “Yeah.”

ALYSSA: “I’ll be on Horsey Highway, Oak Corridor.”

DANNY: “Ok. Is that down where by I picked u up past time?”

ALYSSA: “Yeah. What time can u appear? So I know to be completely ready.”

Alyssa experienced also texted her mom, Krista, to enable her know she was likely to experience “with Danny in tractor trailer (sic) for two days…”

Krista, who was on holiday vacation in Orlando, Fla., had compensated Alyssa’s grandmother to enable Alyssa keep with her when she was out of city. According to relatives, Alyssa and her grandmother got into an argument major to Alyssa getting told to go away. She then created preparations to commit time on the highway with Danny. Alyssa designed her way to her mom’s household the place she waited to be picked up.

DANNY: “Be up there all-around 2 (p.m.). The most recent.”

ALYSSA: “OK. What state we heading to?”

DANNY: “Gotta go to Delaware pick up a trailer then straight to North Carolina. About 7 hrs down.”

ALYSSA: “OK nice. I’m all set. I’m basically homeless appropriate now needing put to continue to be and can trip all in just one.”

DANNY: “Yeah u can.”

ALYSSA: “I’m showering now. I’ll be prepared.”

In a textual content exchange that occurred later that day, Danny McNeal requested for an tackle to select up Alyssa. 

“Is that wherever I picked you up previous time?” He also requested if there was room at her house for him to transform all-around his truck.

“Yes,” Alyssa texted back again. “It has a tractor trailer in yard.”

That was the last-recognized textual content sent by Alyssa Taylor, who has not been observed or listened to from given that Sept. 13. Oak Hall, Va., exactly where it is considered Alyssa was picked up by Danny McNeal, is about five several hours from Hillsborough. 

Alyssa Taylor’s mobile cellular phone records have given that been pulled by regulation enforcement in Virginia, and clearly show her telephone was past ‘pinged’ among Emporia, Va., and Hillsborough. Emporia is about two hrs from Hillsborough.

Four days following the tragic crash on I-85 in Hillsborough, and Danny McNeal’s dying currently being built public, Krista Taylor was touring north on her way home from Orlando. She was stunned when she begun seeing messages of condolence for Danny and his obituary on Fb. Krista swiftly recalled that Alyssa was setting up to experience with Danny. She started calling spouse and children associates and pals who explained they had neither viewed nor listened to from her daughter.

Krista adjusted her route to a single that would consider her as a result of Hillsborough. She found the tow company that experienced eliminated the tractor trailer wreckage, nevertheless hoping she would locate clues that would in some way show that Alyssa did not capture a experience with Danny, or at the very least, was not still on the truck when it crashed. What she identified, though, has all but confirmed to her that Alyssa had been on the doomed tractor trailer.

As Krista carefully inspected the charred remains of the car Danny McNeal had been driving, she located a pink blanket with Teddy bears on it that was moist and primarily included with dirt and soot. The blanket was thought to be the exact one particular that had been supplied to Alyssa numerous yrs ago. The identical pink blanket she took with her in which ever she went.

“Krista saved declaring, ‘I know she (Alyssa) goes almost everywhere with that pink blanket,’” reported Shelly Payton, Krista’s sister and Alyssa’s aunt. The blanket was a present from a good friend of their family members. Payton stated it was sentimental to Alyssa and that she had had it for a long time.

On Sept. 20, a missing people report was submitted with the Accomack County Sheriff’s Workplace by Alyssa’s household. Detective Nicholas Kugler of Accomack County Sheriff’s Business is the lead investigator and call on the scenario. In addition to the textual content messages and finding what might be Alyssa’s blanket at the truck wreckage, Accomack County officers have also sent to the N.C. State Highway Patrol an audio recording that captures a voice in the history that is considered to be Alyssa’s.

According to evidence offered by Virginia authorities, Danny McNeal made a end at a friend’s residence in Exmore, Va., which is in which McNeal lived. McNeal’s truck was parked illegally, and a Virginia Point out Trooper issued a quotation to the truck driver. The trooper was outfitted with overall body cam technological know-how. The household said it has viewed the footage, which they stated was much too grainy to make out a visible of who was on the video clip. They could, even so, make out a voice.

“You couldn’t see her in the image extremely fantastic because it was so grainy,” mentioned Shelly Payton, Alyssa’s aunt. “You could just see a dim-haired woman but you could listen to her voice. I, myself discovered her voice and my sister, Alyssa’s mother, discovered her voice of her speaking there.”

If Danny McNeal had kept to the vacation program he messaged to Alyssa on Sept. 13, he would have traveled south from Delaware and into Virginia. He would very first have handed as a result of Oak Hall to pick up Alyssa. Continuing toward North Carolina, McNeal would have handed by way of Exmore, Va., wherever the driver was issued a quotation.

In accordance to the tractor trailer’s GPS logs, McNeal’s vehicle previous came to a comprehensive halt in Emporia, Va. The quit was clocked between two and three minutes. Moore’s Trucking Co., dependent in Belle Haven, Va., offered Virginia legislation enforcement with the GPS info. 

Spouse and children customers have speculated that the short stop could have been a moment for Alyssa either to leap out of the truck or to have been dropped off. Still, Alyssa’s aunt believes her niece would have identified as another person to pick her up.

“She understood her mom’s quantity by coronary heart. She would have called her,” Shelly Payton mentioned.

Although she explained she did not know Danny McNeal nicely, Shelly Payton (Alyssa’s aunt) said she understood McNeal experienced been a driver for Moore’s Trucking for “a very long time.” Her partner was also a driver for the company. Her husband explained the organization experienced a ‘no-rider’ rule in spot that would have forbidden anyone other than the employed driver to be in the truck at any time during use, so Alyssa’s presence in the truck would have been a violation of the company’s plan.

“I normally assumed he was a very first rate man or woman,” Shelly Payton claimed of Danny. “He was generally pleasant. I feel he’s a respectable human being. I have hardly ever listened to something poor about Danny, personally.”

Member’s of Alyssa’s family, which includes her mom, and two aunts, designed the trip to Hillsborough this weekend, in search of answers and enable with the investigation. To this level, they said, there’s been minimal luck with both. The spouse and children has asked for the truck wreckage, which is now at Clayton’s Wrecking Co. in Durham, to be checked around by cadaver canines they have questioned for a ‘grid search’ of the wreck website. Even with the blanket, texts, and GPS information the relatives has brought forth, it has obtained tiny nearby assist.

The loved ones arrived at out to Orange County EMS by way of Fb with a ask for for enable, asking if the EMS crew on the scene of the Sept. 14 crash could “100{e538325c9cf657983df5f7d849dafd1e35f75768f2b9bd53b354eb0ae408bb3c} say no a single else was in the truck.”

The company responded that it could verify that “only a person person and a pet was observed/taken out from the auto. Hearth crews did a comprehensive lookup soon after extinguishing the hearth.”

Alyssa’s relatives associates attempted for times with no luck to arrive at a Detective with the N.C. Freeway Patrol. A member of the freeway patrol did meet up with the relatives members at Clayton’s Wrecking Co., but only to be certain no 1 disturbed or took something from the truck, which is nevertheless the residence of Moore’s Trucking Co.

The relatives later on explained it was told by Sgt. Mitchell Mann of the N.C. Freeway Patrol, that a crime scene investigation unit had gone to the wreckage and observed absolutely nothing.

The ladies posted video clips to Fb demonstrating the stays of the truck, the blanket, and what they allege is one of Alyssa’s flip flops.

The News of Orange reached out to the Orange County division of the N.C. State Highway Patrol for information about the Sept. 14 wreck and prospective missing folks case, but the contact has not however been returned.

Alyssa’s relatives customers went to the wreck site to see if they could discover any other clues that would present evidence that their daughter/niece was on the truck when it crashed. For various several hours, the 3 girls searched the facet of the interstate.

“We went out there and dug by the place the chicken bones ended up and every little thing else,” Shelly Payton said. “Just to see if we could locate anything that we could understand.”

She said they observed charred pieces of what may have been parts of the truck as far as 500 feet away from the effects web page. 

For now, the three females explained they never know how prolonged they will continue to be in the spot. “We have no strategy at this issue,” Shelly Payton said. “To be straightforward, just until we get some answers. We gotta get some kind of solutions. We obtained to know what is actually staying carried out. We just retain stressing the truth that we certainly think that Alyssa was in that accident. We get no demise certificate until finally we obtain out. We don’t have a service. We do not even start out to mourn until finally we come across out. I am just hoping to keep myself jointly. I am trying my most difficult just to preserve myself jointly and I believe in my coronary heart she was in the incident. Like I mentioned, we never get to morn until any individual essentially stands up and helps us and it demonstrates that she was in that incident.”

If you have any facts or can present enable to the spouse and children, connect with the Accomack County Sheriff’s Workplace at 757-787-1131.