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Sunday crash claims a third victim
0912 karlie miles
Karlie Miles - photo by Photo from Facebook

A third person has died from injuries in a car crash in Effingham County Sunday afternoon.

Theresa Carolyn “Karlie” Miles, 19, of Springfield was pronounced dead Wednesday evening at Memorial Health University Medical Center, according to the Effingham County Sheriff’s Office.

Miles and her passenger Ivey Castaneda, 15, were in a pickup truck that collided with a van on Old Augusta Road South not far from the Mallard Pointe subdivision. Castaneda, a student at Effingham County High School, remains hospitalized at Memorial with serious injuries, the ECSO said.

Miles was a 2013 ECHS graduate. She was enrolled at Savannah Technical College and employed by Gulfstream Aerospace.

Initial reports were of the crash involving the van and pickup, but later a third vehicle was confirmed to have been involved. A Ford Taurus sustained minor damage in the wreck and its 17-year-old driver was not injured, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

Investigators have described the circumstances of the crash as “complicated” but otherwise have not elaborated why the identity of the teenage driver of the Taurus has not been released or what role she might have played in the crash.

Memorial services will be held tomorrow for the mother and daughter who died in the crash. Megan Kessler, 30, of Rincon and her mother Marlys Strempke, 54, of Allenhurst were in the van that was hit by the pickup. Both died at the scene.

The visitation for Kessler and Strempke will be Saturday from 12:30-2 p.m. at Thomas C. Strickland & Sons Funeral Home in Rincon. Funeral services will follow at 2 p.m. in the funeral home chapel.

Remembrances may be given to the Bank of America Rincon branch for Kessler’s children or the “Help the Kessler Family” account on www.GoFundMe.com.

The crash remains under investigation by the Georgia State Patrol Specialized Collision Reconstruction Team.