Dead woman found in passenger seat of towed car, family demands answers
Stoneville NC Aug 13 2021 Two North Carolina parents want to know how their daughter’s dead body wound up in a towing company parking lot, where she was discovered nine hours after apparently being in a car crash.
The North Platte Telegraph reports that Teresa Tysinger Williams was in the passenger seat of her 1999 Jeep Grand Cherokee, which her son Banner “Cole” Williams drove into an embankment just before 7 a.m. on June 14 in Stoneville.
Police allege that the 26-year-old driver used heroin an hour before the crash.
According to Nellie Nelson, the victim’s mom, authorities told her that when they arrived at the scene of the crash, they spoke to Cole Williams, who had already exited the car.
Highway patrol officers allegedly said that at no time did Cole Williams mention anyone was in the smashed up automobile, which is registered to his 54-year-old mom.
A July 5 Medical Examiner’s report also indicated that first responders, including an EMS, were not told Williams had been in the car at the time of the collision.
“Apparently, he did not say his mother was with him… even when he went to the hospital after the wreck,” Nelson said police told her. “He never mentioned nothing about his mother.”
Cole Williams was treated for non-life threatening injuries while his mother’s Jeep, seemingly with her still in it, was towed to a lot in the north-central town of Reidsville, N.C.
The search from the victim got underway that afternoon when her boyfriend learned she hadn’t reported to work and started to worry. He called Nelson to inquire about her daughter’s whereabouts. Nelson then learned from her other daughter, Sheila Tysinger, that Cole Williams’ had earlier wrecked his mom’s SUV.
“That’s when I started calling 911 and telling them to find my daughter,” Nelson told the Telegraph. “I said, ‘Go back and search that scene and find my daughter… go find my daughter.’”
Nelson then headed to the crash scene around 3:30 p.m. where emergency workers had returned to conduct a search.
According to the medical examiner’s report, after being made aware a second person may have been in that earlier crash, authorities found Teresa Williams body at McGehee’s Towing Company. She was covered by some loose clothing and a baby seat.
Neither of the two towing companies that moved the victim’s vehicle on the day of the collision noticed anyone in the passenger seat. Because an active investigation is underway, authorities did not comment on the Telegraph’s report.
Nelson said she still isn’t sure when exactly her daughter died and worries she could have died in a towing company parking lot. She also wonders why her daughter’s purse and cell phone were found in her home. According to Nelson, Teresa Williams wasn’t known to let her son drive her SUV and it’s unusual they would have been out and about so early in the morning.
“I need somebody to tell me what happened to my daughter,” Nelson said.
She and the victim’s father, Roger Tysinger, also question why investigators didn’t look for their daughter when they realized a vehicle registered to her had been involved in a wreck.
The medical examiner reportedly found that Teresa Williams died of multiple blunt force injuries caused by the accident. She was a mother of four and had six grandchildren.
Cole Williams faces criminal charges including second-degree murder, reckless driving, driving while impaired and driving on a revoked license. He had reportedly been to rehab four times and sometimes slept in his mom’s vehicle. An attorney has reportedly been appointed to him by the court.
