BAKERSFIELD, CA - A tragic car crash led to a deadly car fire that killed an elderly woman from Weldon. Police say hours separated the crash and the fire, and the elderly woman driving was trying to get out the entire time, but couldn't.
It happened on Quail Creek Road near the intersection of Snow Road late Thursday night and lasted into early Friday morning.
Bakersfield Police say when they were called out Friday morning around 2:20 a.m., they didn't know what they were investigating, a crash that led to a fire or a possible homicide. But, a house across the street has surveillance cameras, and one just happened to answer their questions.
At 11:25 Thursday night, surveillance cameras record a woman making a U-turn at a dead end on Quail Creek Road, but she goes too wide and gets stuck in a drainage ditch. Nearly three hours later, past 2:00 Friday morning, the video shows the SUV and woman still there and flames start shooting from underneath the car.
"I heard a loud explosion and then I came out and it was like an inferno. Things were exploding, flying," said Tiffany Warner who lives across the street and owns the surveillance cameras.
Warner called 911 when she saw the flames, unaware of what was burning or that the woman driving had been trapped for hours.
"It appears, at this point, because of her advanced age, perhaps, she wasn't able to crawl over to the passenger side," said Sgt. Joe Grubbs, Bakersfield Police Department.
Kern County Fire crews found her body and called police, unclear if the fire was accidental or intentional. Investigating detectives then went to Warner's nearby home.
"They saw I had cameras and they were investigating a possible homicide, which kind of threw me back. And I said, you are kidding me and it's not that car over there. And, they said, yes," said Warner.
Warner's camera had captured it all. Detectives watched as the woman drove into the ditch and then spent hours going in forward and reverse, trying to drive her way out of the ditch. But, then the car catches fire.
"She was making attempts to drive it out of the ditch from what we can see behind the video. So, at some point it caught on fire," said Sgt. Grubbs.
Friday, there were just scars on the ground left of what happened. There was a burnt tire, glass and parts next to the dead end road. Police don't know why the woman was out so late or if she had a cell phone. But they do know, thanks to the camera and its video, that this was all just a horrible accident.
"You know, I never thought when I put these in that someday it would help solve something like this," said Warner.
The Coroner's Office says they have not released the Weldon woman's name because they are still trying to contact her family. They will likely do an autopsy Monday.