1. Alisa Marie Radford, Sept. 14, 2003: Radford, 45, died when she and Lehman Leroy Horne crashed on a motorcycle just north of Floyd. The Floyd woman was a passenger on the 1974 Harley-Davidson when the bike veered off the road, went down an embankment and hit a wire fence, police reported. Radford died at the scene.

Paul Radford said his sister had graduated from Floyd County High School in 1976, had recently returned to her hometown and had been working at Floyd Xpress.

2. Kevin Douglas Conner, Oct. 14, 2003: Conner, 19, died at the scene of a single-car crash. Police said he was traveling 70 mph in a 55-mph zone. “Teenagers, they just don’t have a clue that when you get in a vehicle and you go too fast, you’re gonna get hurt,” Susan Conner said.

Her stepson lost control of his Honda Accord, drove off the road and struck an embankment before the car rolled across the highway and came to rest on the southbound shoulder, police said.

Susan Conner described the teen as intelligent, sensitive and quiet. He had attended Floyd High School, where he played baseball. He had been working at Macado’s in Christiansbug and taking time off from school, his stepmother said.

3. Sherman and Iris Thompson, Nov. 18, 2003: The Thompsons had spent the morning in Roanoke, where Sherman had a doctor’s appointment, said daughter Karen Shelor. She and her family were waiting for them at the Thompsons’ house in Floyd. According to police reports, a four-car crash began when a truck crossed the center line and sideswiped another pickup. The second truck spun and hit the Thompsons’ car head-on, while the first truck collided head-on with another car. No one was speeding, but the Thompsons did not appear to be wearing seat belts, police said. Sherman Thompson, 83, died at the scene and his wife, 79, died later at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital.

Shelor said her parents were active in the community. Iris Thompson volunteered at Angels in the Attic and was president of the Baptist Women’s Missionary Union. Her husband was a mechanic for 30 years. He loved snakes, particularly blacksnakes, which he’d sometimes use in practical jokes played on friends and family members, Shelor said. They had four children. In 1985 and 1996, local organizations designated Sherman Thompson “Father of the Year.”

4. Jonathan Lynwood Quintrell and Megan Dawn Hall, Nov. 21, 2003: A month before they were scheduled to be married, the pair of 19-year-olds died in a head-on collision, leaving behind their two children. Quintrell and Hall were killed when 17-year-old Travis Owen Butler’s truck crossed the center line shortly after 11 p.m. Butler was using alcohol and cocaine at the time, and he later pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and other misdemeanor charges. He was sentenced to up to three years in a juvenile detention facility.

“It wasn’t justice,” said Hall’s mother, Dana Lauth, who hoped the boy would be tried as an adult. “It just don’t feel like justice was done there.”
Hall and Quintrell had a daughter who was 6 weeks old at the time of the crash. Hall, who had been working at Subway restaurant in Rocky Mount, also had a 3-year-old son. Both children, along with five other teens and adults, were injured in the accident. Hall would have turned 20 the day after she died.

5. Esma Duncan Akers, Nov. 26, 2003: Akers, a 79-year-old Floyd resident, had just crossed the highway to check her mailbox when she was struck by a truck. She died that night at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Kelly Simpkins Hill, the Willis woman who hit Akers, was not charged.

Akers worked as a hostess at Hardees, a job her daughter Arlene Hedrick said was perfect for her. “She wanted to spoil you,” Hedrick said. She would have celebrated her 80th birthday a month later.

6. Jessica Joyce Cupp, Jan. 3, 2004: Cupp wasn’t the only person in her car when it crashed, but that wasn’t evident at first. The 19-year-old woman from Copper Hill lost control of her car at about 10:30 p.m. outside of Floyd. Her boyfriend, 31-year-old Michael Lovern Guthrie, also of Copper Hill, later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of leaving the scene of the accident. Another passenger in the car, a juvenile who also ran, was never charged.

Cupp’s mother, Sherrie Neighbors, still doesn’t know what happened that night. Now, she says she’s just trying to move on. “I know she’s with God,” said Neighbors, who remembers her daughter as a young woman with a big heart and a wild side.

7. Efrain Jacome Cabrera, April 9, 2004: Cabrera, 24, was sitting in the front passenger seat of a Nissan Sentra at about 12:45 p.m. when it collided with a pickup truck. The 24-year-old Copper Hill man was seriously injured and was taken to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, where he died just after 5 p.m.

8. Cristin Leigh Collins, April 20, 2004: Collins, 22, ran a stop sign and was killed in a two-vehicle crash at about 6:40 p.m. A Roanoke resident, Collins attended Virginia Western Community College and worked as a nursing assistant for the Virginia Lutheran Homes.

— Michelle Jarboe