Flowers, notes and candles are left at the site where Edith Cook was killed Saturday morning.

Chris Newbill stands at the memorial site for his cousin Edith Cook on Monday. Cook went to Newbill's house to help him after his mother died Friday. She offered to clean before other relatives arrived.

Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times

Chris Newbill holds a photo of his cousin Edith Cook, who had been to visit him the night she died.

Edith Cook might have been driving her 2003 Pontiac early Saturday if not for a fender bender last month that led to her second drunken driving arrest.

Cook, 44, lost her license, so she was walking home on 10th Street Northwest near Grayson Avenue in Roanoke.

Keith Shupe, 33, a two-time convicted drunken driver, was behind the wheel of a maroon Ford Explorer speeding down 10th Street and smelling of alcohol, police said. He struck a concrete median, then a building and rolled four times.

Cook was hit by the tumbling Ford Explorer. She died at the scene.

"She was trying to do the right thing," her cousin Chris Newbill said Monday. "Trying to stay straight until her court date today."

Shupe, of Roanoke, was thrown from the vehicle. He was in critical condition at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, according to hospital spokeswoman Allie Buth.

Shupe has not been charged in the wreck.

Cook, a mother of children ages 24 and 20, was scheduled to appear in Roanoke General District Court on Monday for a hearing on her second DUI charge.

She was arrested July 26, her birthday, steps from her house after she rear-ended another car at a stoplight, according to court records and the woman whose car was struck.

"She got out of her car and said, 'The light was green, you should of went!' " said Clara Williams Crowder, 44, of Roanoke.

Cook was convicted of driving under the influence in 2007 in Roanoke County, according to court records. Her license was suspended for one year and she paid a $250 fine.

Newbill's mother died Friday. Cook took a taxi to his house and offered to clean before other relatives arrived, he said. They lingered outside and had a few drinks with other family and friends, Newbill said.

When Cook was ready to go home, someone offered to drive her. She declined, saying she wanted to walk, Newbill said.

"She came and gave me support for my mom and then this happens to her," Newbill said, standing where his cousin died.

"I wish that she could've stayed just a little bit longer. I wish we could take back time and bring her back."

Family and friends built a small memorial of fresh-cut flowers, candles, balloons and notes on poster board at the intersection.

David Penn, 57, said he saw the grinding wreck while he was visiting a friend nearby. He said Shupe hit a concrete median on 10th Street and then ran off the road, hit the building, flipped and hit Cook. Shupe was ejected from the driver's side door and landed about 20 feet from where the SUV came to rest, Penn said. He said he called 911.

Newbill said investigators told him the SUV was traveling about 75 mph.

Shupe "had a strong odor of alcoholic beverage on his breath" and the SUV was traveling at "an apparent high rate of speed," Roanoke police Officer T.M. Mealey wrote in a search warrant filed Monday in Roanoke Circuit Court. The warrant sought blood samples to test Shupe's blood-alcohol content.

Shupe's criminal history includes two DUI convictions in Roanoke. In 2006, he was arrested in a hit-and-run at Preston Avenue and Oakland Boulevard, according to court records. The arresting officer wrote that the "driver smelled of an alcoholic beverage, had slurred speech and was intoxicated." Shupe lost his license for a year and paid a $250 fine.

In 2008, Shupe was pulled over on Elm Avenue and admitted he drank two 16-ounce beers within a half-hour, according to court records. He failed two field sobriety tests and had a blood-alcohol content of 0.17, more than two times the legal limit, the records said. Shupe spent 10 days in jail, lost his license for a year and paid a $500 fine.

Shupe is a self-employed carpenter, his friend John Sink said. Relatives of Shupe could not be reached Monday.