A woman from Statesville who had been reported missing was found deceased Wednesday in a wrecked 2003 Lexus RX300 SUV in the Brushy Mountain community, said Trooper Zach Jennings of the N.C. Highway Patrol.
Emergency personnel found the body of Barbara Houser Bellamy, 74, in the driver’s seat of the overturned Lexus after the Wilkes Communications Center received a call at 10:32 a.m. about a vehicle being seen wrecked down an embankment along Brushy Mountain Road, with a person inside.
Jennings said the wreck is believed to have occurred around 9:30-10:30 p.m. Tuesday because the SUV’s motor was cold and someone who lives nearby reported seeing a light flash then from the direction of where the wreck occurred that normally wasn’t seen.
Jennings said the Lexus was northbound (toward the Wilkesboros) on Brushy Mountain Road when it ran off the left side of the road in a sharp curve, went down a steep embankment, struck a large rock, overturned and came to rest on its top about 120 feet from the roadway. He said a seatbelt was still buckled around Bellamy.
The trooper said there was no indication of the vehicle traveling at an excessive speed nor of brakes being applied before the wreck occurred. There is no guardrail where the Lexus ran off the road and emergency personnel say many wrecks have occurred in the same curve over the years.
The curve is a few hundred feet south of where Wildflower Lane intersects with Brushy Mountain Road and near the Antigua subdivision.
A Silver Alert was issued earlier Wednesday for Bellamy after she left a home at 181 Miller Farm Road (near N.C. 115) in Statesville about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday and failed to return. According to the alert, issued by the N.C Department of Public Safety, she was believed to be suffering from dementia or some other cognitive impairment. The alert said she possibly was driving a 2003 Lexus RX300.
Authorities said emergency personnel were dispatched after someone clearing land reported seeing the overturned vehicle, with a person inside. In addition to the N.C. Highway Patrol, the Brushy Mountain and Moravian Falls fire departments, Wilkes Rescue Squad and Wilkes Emergency Medical Services were dispatched.
Brushy Mountain Road was closed for a few hours and reopened early Wednesday afternoon after a wrecker removed the Lexus, using a route near the embankment the SUV went down but less steep. Firefighters cleared brush to facilitate the removal.
A Silver Alert is issued by in North Carolina for people believed to have dementia, Alzheimer’s or something similar that results in them needing to be protected from harm if they are reported missing by a legal custodian.