Hickory officers return to scene of fatal hit-and-run

Experts reconstruct death of woman on U.S. 321

Credit: Robert C. Reed

Hickory police officers Jonathan Bumgarner and Amanda Efird, with the Traffic Safety Unit, use a laser rangefinder to check a fatal hit-and-run scene on U.S. 321. The accident occurred early Oct. 18, when Charlaine Sybrant was struck by a vehicle driven by Daniel Thomas Whisnant of Lenoir.

By: Richard Gould | Hickory Daily Record
Published: October 28, 2009

HICKORY --

A steady rain fell Tuesday afternoon as Hickory officers concluded their crash reconstruction at the scene of last week's deadly hit-and-run.

The officers used a laser rangefinder similar to those used by surveying teams to shoot strategic points from the point where Charlaine Sybrant and Joshua Gajus' car ran out of gas to the point where they were hit by a car early Sunday morning.

The total distance was about a mile and the investigators plotted skid marks, debris fields and the locations where the victims were found among scores of other points.

"I would say 200 points, easy," said Jonathan Bumgarner of the Hickory Police Department's Traffic Safety Unit.

It took officers nearly nine hours to complete the work over Monday and Tuesday.

Bumgarner said the unit reconstructs accidents that involve serious injuries or fatalities.

The reconstruction will allow investigators to produce a scale drawing of the accident and determine the speed of the car that hit Sybrant and Gajus, said Maj. Clyde Deal of the Hickory Police Department.
Sybrant died at the scene of accident. Gajus sustained injuries to his leg, and the car that hit them fled the scene of the accident.

About an hour later, a Valdese police officer stopped a 2003 Chevrolet Impala for suspicion of driving while impaired.

The driver, Daniel Thomas Whisnant, 18, of Lenoir, was arrested and charged with felony death by motor vehicle, felony serious injury by motor vehicle and two counts of felony hit and run by the Hickory Police Department.

The Valdese Police Department charged him with driving while impaired and driving while license revoked. He was placed in jail under a $104,000 secured bond.

Two days later Whisnant's passenger, Joey Lee Durham, 20, of Collettsville, was arrested and charged with felony accessory after the fact and given a $5,000 unsecured bond.

Durham was riding in the front passenger seat of Whisnant's car, according to officials with the Hickory Police Department. He was arrested for not reporting the accident.

Whisnant's next court date is Nov. 5, for a probable cause hearing for the felony death by motor vehicle, felony serious injury by motor vehicle and two counts of felony hit and run. He has a court date of Nov. 25 for the driving while impaired and the driving while license revoked charges.