Police: 5 dead, 2 injured after crash in southern Indiana

SCOTTSBURG, Ind. – Five young people died and two others were injured Friday after the SUV they were riding in crashed and overturned multiple times in rural southern Indiana, police said.

The sport utility vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed when it crashed about 2 a.m. in Scott County near Scottsburg, said Indiana State Police Sgt. Carey Huls. The vehicle rolled several times before coming to rest in a field, he said. No other vehicles were involved.

Huls said the five who died were all from Indiana. He identified them as Christopher Paul Dry, 18, of Indianapolis; Wandella Marie Brown, 22, of Austin; Elizabeth Michelle Wagner, 20, of Lexington; Jeremiah James Akers, 18, of Deputy; and Sarah Starling, 16, of New Albany.

Investigators believe Brown was the driver. Huls said no one in the SUV was wearing a seat belt and that each of the five killed were ejected from the vehicle.

“It’s just sad. It appears they were probably a group of friends or at least acquaintances together in one vehicle,” Huls said.

One of the injured is also from Indiana, 20-year-old Adam Wayne Parker of Austin. The other is Shelby Lynn Griffin, 21, of Dalhart, Texas. Both were in stable condition at a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, Huls said.