By Kathy Chaffin

Salisbury Post

LANDIS — Rena and Bobby Fox were at their home on Turner Street Tuesday evening when they saw the television coverage of the horrific head-on collision on Main Street.

They never dreamed their granddaughter, Leeanna Codespot Newman, was involved. “We didn’t recognize her car because it was so torn up,” Rena said this morning.

It wasn’t until Rena called her daughter, Bobbie Easley, that she realized something terrible had happened. “She was crying real bad,” she said, “and she couldn’t talk.”

Rena then called her other daughter, Charlotte Hardin, who told her what had happened. A Jeep racing north on Main Street at about 5:15 p.m. had crossed the center line and crashed head-on with Leeanna’s Saturn with her and her 21-month-old daughter, Mallory Faith, inside.

Amazingly, Mallory, who was buckled in a child’s safety seat, escaped with only minor injuries.

Twenty-year-old Leeanna, who was eight months pregnant with a baby girl, died shortly after the accident. Doctors at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte performed a Caesarean section in an attempt to save the unborn child, but she did not survive.

Leeanna and Mallory had visited Rena and Bobby earlier Tuesday afternoon. Rena gave her granddaughter a quilt she had made for her and her husband, Brad.

Before they left, Rena said Leeanna hugged and kissed her like she always did and told her that she loved her. “I told her I loved her, too,” she says.

Look for a full story in Thursday’s Post.