Elleana Lee Gaddis,Isabella Lee Gaddis Obituary, Death; – A woman from South Carolina has been sentenced to 25 years in prison following her conviction for a wrong-way DUI accident in 2021 that resulted in the deaths of three teenagers from Fishers.
Melissa Ann Parker, aged 43, received her sentence on Monday after being found guilty of multiple felonies, including DUI resulting in death and assault and battery. According to reports from 7News in South Carolina, she has also been ordered to pay restitution exceeding $75,000.
The charges arose from a tragic incident in Spartanburg in 2021, which claimed the lives of 17-year-olds Elleana Lee Gaddis and Isabella Lee Gaddis, along with 18-year-old Brianna Lynn Foster, all residents of Fishers. The victims were merely ten minutes away from their destination when Parker, driving a stolen vehicle, collided with them head-on.
Emergency services were alerted around 2 a.m. on August 16, 2021, to a severe head-on crash on Interstate 26. Parker, identified as the driver of the vehicle traveling the wrong way, reportedly crawled through the back windshield and fled the scene after the collision.
“I exited the car, stood up, and began calling for help,” recounted Maci Watts, the sole survivor in the vehicle with the girls. “I later learned that the defendant had crawled out of her car and escaped.”
Parker was allegedly operating a Hummer SUV that she had stolen from a Circle K on Asheville Highway. Reports indicate that she circled the Circle K multiple times as police arrived, nearly colliding with an officer attempting to intervene.
Authorities stated that Parker subsequently drove the stolen vehicle onto the interstate in the wrong direction, leading to a collision with a Kia sedan driven by Brianna Foster, who was transporting herself and three friends to a nearby beach.
The crash resulted in the deaths of Foster and the Gaddis twins, while Watts sustained minor injuries. All four girls were students at Hamilton Southeastern High School. Following the incident, law enforcement was able to track down Parker, who had fled the scene.
