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'Impaired' Driver Kills Pregnant Mom & 7-Month-Old Son Hours After Surprise Proposal

NewsPublished Dec 27, 2017
By Jordyn Smith
featured-img-of-post-209681Shelly Mulkey/Facebook

In an instant, 19-year-old Shelly Mulkey, her 7-month-old son, and her unborn baby all lost their lives after a suspected drunk driver crashed into the mother's car. Mulkey's boyfriend had just proposed to her shortly before the accident on Christmas Eve and now Mulkey leaves behind a stunned and devastated family as well as a new fiancé. 

New York Daily News reports that 36-year-old Jillian Ramsey was fleeing an earlier car crash in Loranger, Louisiana on Christmas Eve when she rear-ended Mulkey, her fiancé Ryan McCollum Sr., and their young son. The crash caused the couple's gas tank to rupture, almost immediately igniting both cars and sending them up in flames. 

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Pedestrians who witnessed the crash were able to pull the pregnant mom and McCollum from their car but weren't able to retrieve the baby. "It sounded almost like a bomb or something," witness Kasey Craig told Fox8. "The whole trailer shook. We came out here and there was these tire tracks right here and where you see that it was just fire. I ran into Hopping Harley's to get a fire extinguisher and I tried to get the fire extinguisher to him as quick as I could. The firefighters they were doing their best but we just couldn't get to them."

Mulkey and the 7-month-old were pronounced dead at the scene while McCollum was taken to the hospital and treated for burns on his face and a leg injury. Ramsey escaped the crash with minor injuries. The Advocate reports that after the crash, state troopers determined that Ramsey was impaired.  

Shelly Mulkey

McCollum also shared that the couple had just gotten news that Mulkey was expecting another baby, prompting McCollum to propose to her just hours before she and his son were killed. "I got a ring out and asked her to marry me. I got on one knee," he said. In her excitement, Mulkey had happily accepted his proposal. 

Billy Mulkey, Shelly's father, told The Advocate that Ryan Jr. was "the best baby you ever seen in the world."

Billy, who had just seen his daughter and grandson earlier that day, is still in shock. "I don't care if he had a fever of 101. If you look at him and smile, he’s going to start smiling and laughing and jumping around," he said.

In the wake of the crash, Ramsey has been charged with two counts of vehicular homicide, careless operation of a vehicle, and a hit-and-run. Officials report that the investigation is still ongoing.  

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The grandfather says that, while he does feel sorry for Ramsey, he hopes that she will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, "That's three lives she took from me," he said. "That woman is going to have to live with that the rest of her life."

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