Man Drives Home with Decapitated Body in Passenger Seat

There were no links to this that didn't require a registration, so I am posting the whole article. A related article appears below.

www.ajc.com...

Cobb driver charged after decapitated body found in truck

By SAEED AHMED, BRENDEN SAGER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/30/04

A Marietta man left a bar early Sunday morning, got into an accident that decapitated the passenger in his pickup truck, then drove several miles home and went to sleep -- leaving his pickup truck parked overnight in his driveway with the body of his friend 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.

"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.

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.
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.

Hutcherson, dressed in orange jail clothing and with his head partially shaved, made his first court appearance this morning in a courtroom at the county's Adult Detention Center.

Cobb County Magistrate's Court Judge Jennifer Frey set Hutcherson's bond at $100,000.

He remains in the Cobb County Jail.

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 Brohm, said that Brohm was a mechanic who worked late on

Saturdays and then met up with friends sometimes.

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. Police would not say why Brohm was hanging out the passenger-side window when he was struck.

After the accident, police said, Hutcherson's route home took him 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 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.

Pierce would not say how Hutcherson explained the headless body in his truck.

Robert Gladstone, 61, who lives a few doors down from Hutcherson's house and describes him as "a fine fellow," said residents were shocked when they saw the police and the white sheet over the body in the truck.

"But as the day progressed and we found out more and more, my wife and I were in utter disbelief," he said. "It was beyond our imagination."

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.

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, he said.

"It sounds awful, I'm sorry for both families," Collier said. "That kid has never been any problem."
-- Staff writer Mike Morris and researcher Joni Zeccola contributed to this article.


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www.ajc.com...

Freak traffic death probed
Cobb police mostly mum on decapitation

By BRENDEN SAGER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/30/04

Francis Daniel Brohm loved to work on cars, and that passion became his profession.

"He just always wanted to be a mechanic," said his father, Dan Brohm.

Francis Brohm was a hard worker. He started as a porter at Marietta Jeep, where he ran errands before he was promoted to the mechanic's apprentice program.

When he wasn't working, he also relished his role as a social director of sorts, said Elizabeth Brohm, his younger sister. He was the one, she said, who made the calls to recruit friends for a night out.

Early Sunday morning, after spending a night with one of his friends watching a NASCAR race and visiting a bar in Marietta, Brohm was decapitated when he leaned out of the passenger side of his friend's pickup truck and struck the support wire of a telephone pole, police say.

Brohm's friend, John Kemper Hutcherson, drove 12 miles to his house and went to sleep, leaving his pickup truck parked overnight in his driveway with the body of his friend hanging out the passenger window, Cobb County police say.

A neighbor walking with his 1-year-old daughter saw Brohm's body about 8 a.m. Sunday and called police, who later found the severed head at the accident site on Canton Road.

Hutcherson, 21, of Marietta remains in jail on $100,000 bond. He is charged with first-degree vehicular homicide and driving under the influence of alcohol in the death of his 23-year-old friend, who also lived in Marietta.

Cobb police released scant evidence on the case Monday. They would not say where the men watched the auto race and were still investigating what occurred at Runaround Sue's, the bar the two left Sunday morning.

They also would not cite any reason why Brohm was hanging out the passenger window when he struck the wire. The friends were about a half-mile from Runaround Sue's, police said, when Hutcherson's pickup truck ran off Canton Road, traveled about 10 feet and hit the support wire.

The only damage to the vehicle was to the mirror on the passenger side. Hutcherson was not injured in the accident, police said, though he appeared in court Monday with a large shaved spot on an otherwise full head of hair.

"There is no injury to his head," said Cobb police Cpl. Brody Staud. "As to why his head was shaved, that I cannot tell you."

Staud said blood-alcohol evidence is routinely taken in serious traffic accidents, though the results might not be available for weeks.

Brohm's father said he feels no animosity toward Hutcherson or his family. "It is just a bad situation, and we have to move on," Dan Brohm said.





[edit on 04/10/2 by GradyPhilpott]

Now there is a poster child for drunk driving! 12 miles and didnt know his buddies head was gone? Sounds like a case of to much Rumpelmintz.

Actually, it was all over "news of the weird" on Yahoo News back then. The followup is interesting, though.

Originally posted by Byrd
Actually, it was all over "news of the weird" on Yahoo News back then. The followup is interesting, though.

Here in Louisville, We have a paperzine called LEO(Louisville Eccentric Observer).
There is a section in there called the news of the wierd also. Funny stuff You wouldnt believe some of the things people do. It comes out weekly. Ill get one monday and post some of the stories in it.

Very sad. How can someone be so sauced to drive 12 miles with your friend sitting in the passenger seat, decapitated, and not know it?

The really sad part about it is, he'll have to go the rest of his life, knowing that what happened to his friend, could have been prevented.

Very tragic indeed,

But I'd like to know what was going onin the driver's mind when his buddy did'nt respond to any converstaion.