KINGSLAND, Ga. – After days of searching a Yulee family got the news they've dreaded when police found their loved one's body in a car in a ravine west of Kingsland, Georgia, Friday.
According to family members, Tristan Drew Lippman left a home on Cooner Road in Kingsland heading to Yulee, Florida, around 10:15 p.m. Wednesday in a white Toyota Camry.
Lippman's family put out fliers saying she was somewhere in Camden County but troopers with the Georgia State Patrol said that a woman riding a horse saw a car at the bottom of a ravine off Clark's Bluff Road west of Kingsland.
When first responders reached the car, they determined that the driver was Lippmann who was deceased, troopers said.
Officials said that at first glance it looked like Lippmann missed a curve in the road and slid off into a ravine, but friends who went to the scene are questioning what happened.
The road where the accident happened is a rural two-lane road with a blind curve and neighbors said that people often speed through the area.
"It's posted 45 mph and that was recently that they posted it. (People speed through here) and there's kids that do ATV's and other crazy things like that too," resident Ed Rice said.
Rice came out to look at the scene and said he was shaken up to find out the woman, who was almost 20, behind the wheel died.
Family and friends of Lippmann were a little perplexed because they noticed four tire tracks instead of two, wondering if a second car had been involved and left the scene. Police investigators in Georgia haven't released details on the crash but News4Jax Crime and Safety Analyst Gil Smith said sometimes when cars skid off the road they can leave 4 tire tracks because of how the car slides.
"Well they'll have someone who is an expert in accident reconstruction come out and take measurements, take photographs, to see if they're from two different cars or if they're from the same car, but they'll be able to determine that through the investigation," Smith said.
Georgia State Patrol is investigating the crash along with the Camden County Sheriff's Office to determine what exactly happened. While neighbors are saying they have concerns about the road, crash statistics with the state patrol show there have only been two crashes on the road this year.