Man Kills Pregnant Couple in Botched Suicide Attempt

Robert Dellinger allegedly drove his truck across a median, hit SUV
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Dec 12, 2013 9:16 AM CST
Man Kills Pregnant Couple in Botched Suicide Attempt
Amanda Murphy's unborn daughter also died.   (Shutterstock)

A former Fortune 500 executive told police he was trying to kill himself when he drove his pickup truck across the grassy median of a New Hampshire highway on Saturday and slammed into an SUV. What happened instead: He killed an expectant couple inside, prosecutors said yesterday. Robert Dellinger, a former VP and CFO at PPG Industries who also held top positions at Sprint, Delphi, and GE, is charged with two counts of reckless manslaughter in connection with the crash, which killed 29-year-old Jason Timmons and his fiancee, 24-year-old Amanda Murphy, who was eight months pregnant, reports WMUR. Timmons and Murphy were from Wilder, Vt.; their unborn daughter also died.

Dellinger, 53, left PPG in 2011 because of health reasons. Susan Morrell, senior assistant attorney general for New Hampshire, said Dellinger argued with his wife over his medications on the morning of the crash. He left the house and began to drive around, growing increasingly despondent, she said. "He was driving around, depressed and loopy," Morrell said. "He saw the median and decided to turn into it." Prosecutors said Dellinger's truck crossed the median on Interstate 89, became airborne, and sheared off the top of the couple's car, killing them instantly. The medical examiner's report said the injuries they suffered were consistent with a plane crash. (More car crash stories.)

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