Two former Eunice residents were found trapped in an overturned convertible deep in a water-filled canal off a remote road in Port Allen on Monday.
According to a report on the theadvocate.com Brittany Guillory and Jada Jones were trapped in the vehicle for more than 30 hours.
After the car landed, the ravine filled with water, further endangering them, said West Baton Rouge Sheriff’s investigator Lt. Ken Albarez. The driver of the vehicle, Jones, survived and later told authorities she fought to keep her head above water.
When two friends of the women found the car around noon Monday, both women were still in the car. Guillory was dead; Jones was transported to a hospital, and is expected to survive, Albarez said.
Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said both women had Lafayette addresses, but were originally from Eunice.
Eunice Police filed the missing person report on the two women Sunday after a family member asked for help.
“God Almighty … guided them (the friends) to that location and that’s how they found them,” Albarez said. “They were so far off the road and so deep in that ditch.”
The two 20-year-old women had left a Port Allen nightclub early Sunday and about 4:30 a.m. their vehicle ran off a curve on North Line Road in Port Allen. The vehicle hit multiple trees and ended up flipped in the canal, about 40 feet from the road and 20 feet down in the ravine, Albarez said.
A friend had been on the phone with the women at the time of the crash, Fontenot said, and heard Guillory scream, and then the friend lost contact with them. That friend later reached out to the women’s parents, who had filed a missing persons report with the Eunice Police Department, Fontenot said.
Fontenot and Albarez said officials operated a multi-jurisdiction search for the women Sunday. They tried to ping the women’s phones, but the locations were not exact, at one point leading officials to Iberville Parish, Albarez said.
After the car landed, the ravine filled with water, further trapping the women, Albarez said.
Albarez said officials believe Guillory survived the initial crash because Jones said they talked to each other after they landed in the canal. The coroner will determine the cause of Guillory’s death, but Albarez said it is possible she drowned.
Albarez said he does not believe impairment was a factor in the crash. He said a blood sample was taken from Jones, but noted that any intoxicants would likely no longer be present in her system after more than a day.
Jones was dehydrated and her arm was severely injured, as it had been pinched under part of the car in the crash, Albarez said. He said the fact that she survived the crash at all is incredible, because the convertible’s roof is nothing more than a piece of cloth.
Jones is a 2016 Eunice High School graduate.
