Mother and Her 4 Young Children Die as Their Car Bursts into Flames After Crash in Georgia: Reports
On Sunday, April 6, Reagan Dougan, 27, was driving southbound on I-95 in McIntosh County, Georgia, with her sons aged 9, 4, and 3 months and her 2-year-old daughter in a rented Jeep SUV when the accident occurred at around 6 a.m. local time, local outlet WTOC reported.
The SUV struck a sedan and then a guardrail before bursting into flames, causing the family to die at the scene. Georgia State Trooper Christopher Ashdown confirmed the identity of the victims, per ABC News.
Related: Father and His 10-Year-Old Daughter Die in RV Fire on First Day of Easter Vacation: 'Heartbreaking Loss'
Dougan and her children had been traveling from Raleigh, North Carolina, to Florida to meet her husband, who has since been informed of the tragedy, according to ABC News and the local outlet WRAL.
Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The family had moved into a quiet cul-de-sac in Raleigh just months before the fatal crash. Neighbor Jason Flores told the outlet, 'We always waved at each other, she always had a smile on her face. The kids were always happy.'
Related: 15-Year-Old Soccer Star Dies After 'Getting into Difficulty' While Swimming in Lake: Reports
'Their food always smelled good when they cooked it,' he continued. 'It was something that we never really got to share any time together but passing by. I can imagine them here now, but they're gone the next.'
The driver of the other vehicle was taken to the hospital, per ABC News. I-95 remained closed for four hours following the crash, according to WTOC.
PEOPLE has reached out to Georgia State Patrol for comment but did not immediately hear back.
Read the original article on People
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Maxwell is talking 'about everybody' in meetings with the deputy attorney general.
Revelations could be near at hand in the Jeffrey Epstein saga as Ghislaine Maxwell has been granted limited immunity to speak freely in her meetings with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. Blanche traveled to the Tallahassee, Florida, prison where the convicted accomplice of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein is serving a 20-year sentence, for a nine-hour interview over two days. ABC News first reported on the limited immunity, meaning Maxwell can disclose information without criminally implicating herself. 'She answered questions about everybody,' attorney David Oscar Markus told reporters on Friday evening. The meetings were reportedly initiated by Maxwell herself.
11 hours ago
UC Berkeley professor murdered in Greece: Ex-wife's attorney says she is innocent
The ex-wife of Przemyslaw Jeziorski, a marketing professor from the University of California, Berkeley, says she was not involved in his murder, her attorney told ABC News. Jeziorski, a 43-year-old associate marketing professor at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business, was allegedly shot and killed in Athens on July 4 near the home where his two children -- Zoe and Angelo -- live, his younger brother said in a statement. The children, who are 10-year-old twins, had been living with Jeziorski's ex-wife in Athens since 2020, according to court documents. In a press release shared on July 17, police said an attacker "approached the victim and shot him in the chest and back, resulting in his fatal injury, and then fled." Five people have been arrested in connection with the killing, including the professor's ex-wife, her boyfriend and three other men who were allegedly accomplices in the murder, according to Greek police sources. All five suspects appeared in court in Athens on Monday, with the judge ordering they remain in custody until the investigation, the ex-wife's attorney, Alexandros Pasiatas, told ABC News. But, Pasiatas said he is fighting for the ex-wife's release from prison as he says she is innocent. Four out of the five suspects -- everyone except the ex-wife of the professor -- pleaded guilty to the murder, Pasiatas said. The professor's ex-wife, Konstantina Michelidaki -- who goes by Nadia Michelidaki -- says she was not involved in the murder of Jeziorski, according to Pasiatas, despite friends of the professor previously telling ABC News their relationship "was not cordial" and court records indicating Jeziorski tried to file a restraining order against his ex-wife months before his death because he was "fearful" for his life. Pasiatas denied any allegations of emotional, physical or financial abuse from Michelidaki or her partner. "Nadia is a very nice lady. She's a very good mom. But the most important thing you can say about Nadia is that she doesn't want violence at all," Pasiatas told ABC News. "You have to be only a dreamer in order to say that Nadia has organized that." Pasiatas confirmed that Michelidaki's boyfriend, who is only referred to as "Christos" in court documents, was the person who shot Jeziorski, he said. Pasiatas believes Christos killed the professor because the children were "anxious about going with their father" and he decided to "take the law into his hands" -- even though Jeziorski and Michelidaki were privately involved in an ongoing custody and division of property battle. The attorney claims that the custody battle and division of property were complete. But Jeziorski's brother told ABC News a court settlement was reached that would allow the professor to take the children "for the entire month of July and for Christmas," but his ex-wife "refused to hand them over and hadn't prepared their passports." Christos allegedly was "very traumatized from his own family" and the "only thing he wanted was a nice and peaceful family," Pasiatas said. But Christos saw the "children felt unhappy," Pasiatas said. Pasiatas said Christos was "very good with the children" but did have "psychological issues." He added that Michelidaki, Christos and the children were "uncomfortable" with Jeziorski's girlfriend, who Pasiatas said was an escort who "used to take drugs" and would send messages to the mother saying "your children are idiots." Pasiatas said he believes Jeziorski was still dating this woman up until his death. The attorney also accused the professor of "alcohol problems" and that the children -- who speak to Michelidaki over the phone while she is in prison -- "don't ask about their father, they ask about Christos." He added that the children are aware that their father has died, but not the "way" of his death. As to the accusations against Jeziorski's behavior, his brother, Lukasz Jeziorkis, told ABC News in a statement that Michelidaki is a "liar and manipulator" and that UC Berkeley -- where his brother worked -- would not "tolerate a person with such accusations for even a single day." Lukasz Jeziorski also criticized Michelidaki for staying with Christos and having him spend time with the children. "Why did she stay with and allow such a 'man' as this murderer to be around the children? What kind of mother behaves like that?" Lukasz Jeziorski said in a statement. Lukasz Jeziorski said his brother's children -- who are both U.S. and Polish citizens -- are "under care in accordance with Greek child custody procedures," he said in a statement last week.
11 hours ago
'Am I dreaming?': Soccer coach who says he was deported over his tattoo celebrates his release from CECOT
On Wednesday, more than a dozen children in lime green soccer uniform surrounded Jerce Reyes Barrios, hugging and jumping on their former coach as onlookers cheered. Earlier in the week, hundreds of residents of the Venezuelan town of Machiques de Perija lined the street and cheered as a Venezuelan National Guard truck pulled into town to drop Reyes Barrios off at his home. The crowd threw confetti, jumped up and down, and joyfully roared as he exited the vehicle. The exuberant homecoming was in stark contrast to the welcome he received in March at El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, where he says he and over 200 other Venezuelan nationals, accused by the Trump administration of being members of the gang Tren de Aragua, were violently ushered into the facility. "Welcome to hell on earth, where you will be condemned and spend the rest of your life, where I will make sure you never eat chicken or meat again," Reyes Barrios recalled one prison guard allegedly telling the men. "That was when I shed my first tear and thought, wow -- my first time being psychologically abused," he told ABC News in an interview Friday, speaking in Spanish from his home in Venezuela, after being released from CECOT in a prisoner swap last week. Reyes Barrios and his fellow detainees were deported from the U.S. when the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act -- an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process -- by arguing that Tren de Aragua is a "hybrid criminal state" that is invading the United States. An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged shortly afterward that "many" of the men deported on March 15 lacked criminal records in the United States -- but said that "the lack of specific information about each individual" actually "demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile." In March, ABC News reported about Reyes Barrios' imprisonment after his attorney, Linette Tobin, submitted a sworn declaration and documents in court she said backed up her claim that her client had no criminal record in Venezuela or the United States, was employed as a professional soccer player and youth coach, and was falsely accused of being a gang member because of his tattoo which showed a crown on top of a soccer ball with a rosary and the word "Dios," meaning "God." Reyes Barrios' family echoed what his attorney said in court filings, and told ABC News that his tattoo was modeled after the Real Madrid soccer team logo. "I got the tattoo because my favorite team is Real Madrid, which has a crown on top of a circle symbolizing the ball, that's why I got it," Reyes Barrios told ABC News. "For me, soccer is the king of sports so it correlates with the soccer ball with the crown." Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, in a statement to ABC News, said, "DHS intelligence assessments go beyond tattoos, and we are confident in our findings. We aren't going to share intelligence reports and undermine national security every time a gang member denies he is one. That would be insane." 'We were practically lied to' Reyes Barrios crossed the U.S.-Mexico border legally through the CBP One app in September 2025, but was accused of being a Tren de Aragua member and was detained at a facility under maximum security, court records show. "The investigator ... sees my tattoos and tells me this tattoo belongs to the Tren de Aragua gang. I was unaware of (the gang) because in Venezuela you don't really see that," Reyes Barrios said. DHS accused Reyes Barrios of having a gang-affiliated tattoo and also claimed there were photos showing him displaying gang signs. According to Tobin's declaration, those alleged gang signs were the hand symbols for "rock and roll" and "I love you" in sign language. After Tobin presented information about his lack of a criminal record and the source of the tattoo, which included a sworn declaration from the tattoo artist who designed it, Reyes Barrios was transferred out of maximum security. Despite having a court hearing set for April 17, he was transferred to a detention facility in Texas and was promptly deported to El Salvador on March 15, along with over 200 other men. He says ICE officials did not tell the men where they were being sent before they boarded the plane. "There were three planes, everyone clapping because we were going to Venezuela," he said. On the plane, ICE officials ordered the men to keep the windows closed. "The surprise for us -- when we landed in San Salvador," he said. "We were practically lied to." 'We could hear screams' The violent intake process at CECOT was caught on camera and published on social media by Trump administration officials and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele. Reyes Barrios said that once inside the prison, their heads were shaved and they were stripped naked and given prison uniforms. He claims guards beat the men throughout the entire process -- but the real terror started when the men were ushered into "Module 8." "You felt the tension entering that module because we could hear screams. We saw blood, we saw vomit ... people were fainting," he said. It was at that moment that he said a prison official welcomed the men to "hell on earth." From that moment on, Reyes Barrios said the men were not only isolated from other prisoners, but were also cut off from the world. They were unaware, he said, that a federal judge had unsuccessfully ordered the Trump administration to turn their planes around when the ACLU filed an emergency motion in court. "We couldn't see the sun, I mean, we didn't know anything. We said that we had been forgotten, that we were literally going to die there, that no one was fighting for us," he said. The men were regularly beaten, he said. Their beards grew long and unkept. He said the lights inside their crowded cells were kept on and the guards would regularly beat their batons against the bars to keep the men from sleeping during the day. When members of the Red Cross or other officials would visit the prison, Reyes Barrios says the prisoners were handed clean clothes and allowed to shower. They were given better food to maintain the appearance that they were being treated well, he said. "They would take one cell to supposedly go play soccer," he said. "They would have us pretend to play for five minutes, record a video, take a photo, and then back inside. No one else would go out. " The men passed the time playing games and exercising. Reyes Barrios said he read the Bible as he fell into depression. "I read a lot about Job's story because just as God gave Job the patience to endure everything that happened to him, I asked God to give me patience." Then, more than three months into their imprisonment, the men began to suspect something strange was happening when they were given haircuts. At two in the morning, a guard told the men they had 20 minutes to shower. They started to suspect they were about to be released, Reyes Barrios said. "We start clapping, because they never send us to shower at two in the morning," he said. They were each given plain clothes, sneakers, and a sweater. "Some started crying and that moment was beautiful," he said. On July 18, more than 250 Venezuelan migrants were freed by El Salvador and transported to Venezuela. In exchange, the Venezuela's Maduro regime agreed to release 10 American prisoners from their custody. 'Am I dreaming?' A video taken by Reyes Barrios' sister showed the tearful moment he hugged his father after arriving back in his hometown of Machiques de Perija. "Could it be true or am I dreaming?" he says he asks himself now that he has been freed. "I pinch myself, yes it's real." "That welcome the people gave me, I didn't expect it, but that shows the U.S. government that I'm not a criminal," he said. Reyes Barrios says he has no plans of returning to the United States at the moment, but he fears being detained again. A team of lawyers is advising him on filing a potential lawsuit, but he has not yet made a decision. He said he's focused on spending time with his daughters and with God. "At night I would ask God to show me my future in dreams -- what will become of my life," Reyes Barrios recalled of his time in CECOT. "I dreamed of being in my town with my daughters with my parents, and I'd head straight to the soccer field," he said.
