Victim of fatal collision identified

St. Augustine Police Department Public Information Officer Mark Samson reported to Historic City News that a positive identification has been made in fatal traffic collision that occurred late Tuesday night, July 5th.

According to the incident report released today, 36 year-old Laura Nichole Lendin was driving a 2005 Nissan 350Z that belonged to an unnamed victim who reported the car stolen from Scarlet O’Hara’s earlier in the evening.

While the officers were taking the auto theft report, a St. Johns County Sheriff’s deputy stopped a car matching the description of the stolen vehicle at SR-312 and A1A Beach Boulevard.

During the traffic stop Lendin fled from the deputy. While the deputy was getting back into his patrol car to give pursuit, he lost sight of the car Lendin was driving. The last time he saw it was near the curve on A1A Beach Boulevard.

At about the same time, a passing motorist called 9-1-1 to report that they saw a vehicle in the ditch at the curve on A1A Beach Boulevard.

The deputy responded to the crash scene — positively identifying the driver and vehicle for St. Augustine Police Traffic Homicide Investigators as the same driver and vehicle that fled from him. Lendin was dead at the scene

After hours yesterday, Lendin’s husband went to the District 23 Medical Examiner’s Office in St. Augustine. He met with Investigator Kenny Moore to make the identification.

Lendin lived at 1375 Arapaho Avenue in St. Augustine.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News staff photographer