Couple killed in car crash while returning from cousin's funeral
A couple from Tennessee, USA, was killed in a car crash shortly after they left the funeral of their cousin on June 9. 38-year-old Cameo Sanders-Jenkins and her husband, 49-year-old Troy Jenkins, known in their town Pegram as caring people, died when their classic 1968 Chevrolet Camaro accelerated all of a sudden and smashed into a stone wall on Cato Road in Pegram, a town that has only 2,000 residents.
A 27-year-old relative of the deceased couple, Amber Phillips, told the Tennessean: "They were amazing people. I just can’t name one person they did not help in some way."
Phillips told the publication that she had become very attached to the couple over the past two years after Greg Sanders, Cameo's nephew and the father of Phillips' youngest child, was killed in a homicide. After he was killed, Cameo took it upon herself to help out Phillips and her young child.
Phillips said: "She was there for us, physically and emotionally. She was a mentor, a friend, and she was even my realtor – she helped me buy my home." Troy worked as a maintenance worker for a property management company in the town.
Cameo worked as a broker for Jeanette Realtors. She started working in the real estate industry about six years before she passed away. Her colleagues at the company said that she was a kind but passionate employee.
One of the other brokers at the firm, Daniel Miller, said: "She had a spark to her, and nobody pushed her around and nobody ran over her. But she would also help anybody – her family, her friends – she was there for everyone."
Initially, the police had said that the relative who had passed away was the couple's son but they changed the information shortly after.
The couple had been inside their 1968 Chevrolet Camaro and were heading down Cato Road when the incident occured. It has been reported that the car suddenly gained speed and crashed into a wall on the side of the road. The authorities found evidence of braking that took place shortly after the car started accelerating but it did not seem to have slowed the car down enough.
The car was very old and because of this age, it did not have any seat belt and only had lap belts on the inside. The couple is said to have been wearing the lap belts at the time of the crash but the car had another problem; there were no airbags.
Troy and Cameo were immeditely rushed to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center after they were found in the car. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough and they were pronounced dead the moment they were taken in.
Josh Jeanette, the man who owned the firm where Cameo worked, said that when she was extremely nervous and shy when she had first walked into his office six years ago looking for a job. However, she transformed completely after only training for a few weeks and her true self came out in all it's glory.
According to Jeanette, Cameo was quoting all the real estate contacts from memory after only a short period of time.
He said told the publication: "The fire of the redhead came out. I could tell then she was definitely going far in real estate. She had come from little and then built herself up to being very successful. I guarantee you she is keeping them straight in heaven right now."