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Couple Found Dead After CR 439 Crash

    A single-vehicle crash claimed a Paisley couple during the nighttime hours of Friday, February 10, or early Saturday, February 11.  A 24 year-old female and a 45 year-old male were northbound in a Chevrolet Malibu when for unknown reasons the vehicle left the road at the Live Oak Ranch Road intersection, ran into a ditch, jumped over a berm at the intersection, and then traveled through a wooded area before coming to rest.
    The crash wasn’t discovered until around 8 a.m. on Saturday by a property owner at the site, who found pieces of debris in a  hay field at the site and began to look where it may have come from.  The property owner found the woman ejected from the vehicle, with the male victim still inside the car.  Both were deceased.
    The couple was unidentified in Florida Highway Patrol reports on the crash, but memorials placed at the scene identified the victims as Marquis and Randy Timmerman.
    "You couldn't see it from the road," said Beth Nelson, who discovered the crash early Saturday while passing by on Live Oak Ranch Road near the highway.  "I almost couldn't see it." Nelson had seen tracks in a ditch next to the road at the time, but not seeing a vehicle in the area left her to believe whatever had slid off the road had been able to continue on.
    Not knowing there had been a crash, at least not one that had resulted in the vehicle still being there, she headed back into the ranch, but she and a person with her noticed a tire in a hay field near the road.
    “We saw a tire in the field, but when we went to get it, you could tell it should have still been with a car.”
    Nelson began to investigate further.
    “I started walking down the wood line, and started to find it.”
    A tragic scene unfolded, with a car discovered in broken pieces and the female victim deceased outside of the vehicle.  The male victim was still inside the overturned remains, and Nelson had to pull a tree away to confirm the victim’s status to 911 responders she had called by that time.
    Parts were strewn over a large area.
    “The engine was up to 50 feet away.” The car’s battery was in another location. “The car was totally broken apart.  We found all sorts of things in the woods and in the hay field.”
    Nelson said it was no surprise that the crash went unreported for so long, as the road is straight in the area and vehicle lights wouldn’t shine on the wooded area, even if the car had been visible in the brushy, wooded area.
    “You could see no evidence of it from the road, you had to be in the field.”