DEXTER, Mo. -- A Dexter woman lost her life in an accident Saturday afternoon, Sept. 30, when her vehicle ran off the east end of Whitman Street and came to rest upside-down in a pond.
Karen Sue Hampton, 70, was eastbound on Whitman in her 2012 Toyota Camry at about 4:45 p.m. Saturday when her vehicle left the right side of the roadway, traveled across a yard and struck some landscaping pavers, then continued across the driveway at 116 Whitman and struck a brick retaining wall.
According to Dexter Police, the car then vaulted to the rocky embankment around a pond behind the residence and overturned, coming to rest upside down in the pond.
With Hampton in the vehicle was her 13-year-old grandson, John Probst, who was visiting from St. Louis. He managed to escape from the vehicle following the crash, but Hampton perished in the car.
Dexter Fire Department's Extrication Team was on the scene immediately to extricate the driver from the car that had settled upside-down in about three feet of water approximately 10 feet from the pond's bank.
Twenty-one firefighters responded to the call. According to Fire Chief Don Seymore, five of his men entered the pond and removed the woman from the car. She was pronounced dead at the scene by Assistant Coroner Aaron Mathis.
The vehicle was later pulled from the pond by a local wrecker service.