Family in limbo as suspect in 2011 fatality remains free
Family in limbo as suspect in 2011 fatality remains free
By Russ Lay on March 26, 2015
https://outerbanksvoice.com/wp-conte...toriemarch.jpgJoe Storie with his mother, an avid Dallas Cowboy’s fan.
Oct. 5, 2014 passed quietly in Dare County.
Four hundred miles west of here, in Lenoir, N.C, the date marked another anniversary for friends and family of the death of Joe Storie, killed when an allegedly impaired driver ran a flashing red light at the intersection of Colington Road and U.S. 158 on Oct. 5, 2011.
Jan. 9, 2015 marked another sad date in the Storie saga.
It was three years earlier, Jan. 9, 2012, when Superior Court judge J.C. Cole significantly reduced the bond on the man charged in the case, Luis Rodriguez, even though he was in the country illegally and had fled the jurisdiction once before, prompting U.S. marshals and local law enforcement to track him down in Raleigh, and return him to Dare County.
On April 23, 2015, one final anniversary will pass.
It was on that date in 2012, three months after Rodriguez was able to post bond, that the person police and the District Attorney claim is responsible for the death of Joe Storie failed to appear for his scheduled court date.
He had vanished and remains missing to this day, denying some sense of resolution for family and friends and escaping whatever justice the legal system might have meted out.
First of three parts
We have kept in touch with the Storie family on a regular basis since then and believe it is time to remind residents and visitors about the kind of man Joe Storie was, how the family has been treated in the interim and once more ponder how our system of justice allowed Luis Rodriguez to escape.
Joe Storie was a husband, father, brother and employer. He loved the Outer Banks and we detailed much of his life in a 2012 series in the Voice.
Dare County was an annual destination for Storie and his family.
He was like many of our annual visitors: The Outer Banks wasn’t just another vacation spot to him — it was a destination, and he felt like he was part of this community, that same special connection that animates many of our visitors.
On the day he died, he had spent the day offshore fishing with the “guys,” while the women had enjoyed the beach and gone shopping.
When the family and friends regrouped later that day, they decided to go to one of their favorite restaurants, Mama Kwan’s.
It was on the way to Kwan’s when a truck driven by Storie’s friend, and occupied by Joe Storie, his wife Alicia and his sister Christina was heading south on U.S. 158 around 7 p.m.
Three hours earlier in the day, the traffic light at the Colington Road and Highway 158 intersection had malfunctioned.
As it was designed to do, the light on Colington Road was flashing red — meaning drivers on Colington needed to come to a full stop before entering the intersection.
The light on U.S. 158 was flashing yellow.
As the pickup truck occupied by Joe Storie entered the intersection, a car driven by Luis Rodriguez, who was heading east on Colington Road, broadsided it, killing Storie and seriously injuring Christina and Alicia.
Video from convenience store camera at the intersection clearly showed that Rodriguez’s car not only failed to stop as required, the driver didn’t even apply his brakes as he approached U.S. 158.
Rodriguez was also seriously injured and eventually transferred to Sentara Norfolk General hospital.
According to police records, blood tests taken by Sentara Norfolk General indicated Rodriguez’s blood alcohol level was above the legal limit at the time of the collision.
In this video, one from a life long friend of Joe Storie, Catherine Smith, 85, recalls her relationship with the man who lost his life that night in 2011.
Storie’s wife, Alicia, also emailed us a this anecdote about the kind of person Joe was:
Joe blessed so many lives during his lifetime. In November 2014, I had the opportunity to attend a Veteran’s Day event in our county. A U.S. Navy veteran who I was introduced to many years ago by Joe attended the event as well.
While there, the US Navy Veteran introduced me to other veterans as his “good friend Joe’s wife.” He went on to inform his fellow veterans how he met Joe for the first time years ago in the sporting goods department at Walmart in our county (Caldwell); three days later Joe took him turkey hunting in the mountains of North Carolina.
This same U.S. Navy veteran shared the story of how he always planted a garden, but this one year he was forced to have hip surgery. Joe informed this man he would have a garden, so Joe, myself, and Joe’s sons planted and cared for the garden during his recovery.
Hearing this veteran share his stories about Joe with other veterans who have served our county not only brought tears, but many smiles. Joe will never be forgotten.
In the next segment, we will explore how one family member, also a direct victim of the crash, has dealt with the mental and physical scars from that night. In the final segment we will look at how local law enforcement and the justice system has handled the case from 2011 until the present day.https://outerbanksvoice.com/2015/03/...-remains-free/
