The Fight

[gentle music] Around eight thirty PM on Tuesday, August tenth, two thousand and four, a man named Jesse Smith was sitting in his truck at Moab Fault viewpoint in Arches National Park with his wife and toddler when he noticed something happening just up the road ahead of them.

He saw a man and a woman in a heated argument standing next to a nineteen eighty-three Buick Riviera.

The couple's spat seemed to be escalating quickly because they were cursing at one another and then the man physically pushed the woman against the vehicle.

Not long after spotting the pair, Jesse was about to get out of his truck and help the woman.

But right before he headed that direction, the woman started running up the road.

She was crying and screaming, and according to what Jesse later told investigators, she actually went uphill right past him and his wife's truck.

Then the guy who she'd been arguing with got into the Buick and chased after her.

Within seconds, the man swerved into the woman, which caused her to go off the roadway and fall into the dirt.

The couple continued to argue, and eventually, the driver punched the woman in her stomach.

As she fell over in pain, the man who'd thrown the punch got back into the Buick and drove off.

Horrified by what they just watched, the Smiths started up their pickup truck and threw it in reverse.

Jesse honked his horn to signal to the woman that they were coming to check on her, and then he hollered out his window for her to get in the back.

The woman realized the family was trying to help her and began running towards them.

But while she was on her way, the man who just attacked her turned his car around and headed back down the hill.

He was driving fast and swerving back and forth between the lanes.

So Jesse drove quickly to try and close the distance between his truck and the woman, but he wasn't fast enough.

Just as she was about ten feet away from the bed of his pickup, the guy in the Buick struck both the woman and the back of Jesse's truck.

The impact was so great that the truck ended up diving about twenty feet down an embankment with him and his family still inside.

Thankfully, though, the Smiths' vehicle was stopped by a tree, and they were mostly uninjured, but the same could not be said for the man who crashed into them or the woman they tried to help.

The driver in the Buick had been knocked unconscious, and his vehicle was on fire.

The woman he'd hit was dead.

The Grand County Sheriff's Office that investigated this incident provided me with several photos of the aftermath of this scene, and they're pretty jarring.

The front end of the Buick was completely charred and destroyed.

The Smiths' truck was also banged up where it had come to rest down the embankment, and the woman, she was left lying dead in the roadway.

It's unclear what happened next, but as far as I can tell from the available source material and investigative reports, it seems Moab City Police officers were the first to arrive on the scene.

[gentle music] Around eight thirty PM on Tuesday, August tenth, two thousand and four, a man named Jesse Smith was sitting in his truck at Moab Fault viewpoint in Arches National Park with his wife and toddler when he noticed something happening just up the road ahead of them.

He saw a man and a woman in a heated argument standing next to a nineteen eighty-three Buick Riviera.

The couple's spat seemed to be escalating quickly because they were cursing at one another and then the man physically pushed the woman against the vehicle.

Not long after spotting the pair, Jesse was about to get out of his truck and help the woman.

But right before he headed that direction, the woman started running up the road.

She was crying and screaming, and according to what Jesse later told investigators, she actually went uphill right past him and his wife's truck.

Then the guy who she'd been arguing with got into the Buick and chased after her.

Within seconds, the man swerved into the woman, which caused her to go off the roadway and fall into the dirt.

The couple continued to argue, and eventually, the driver punched the woman in her stomach.

As she fell over in pain, the man who'd thrown the punch got back into the Buick and drove off.

Horrified by what they just watched, the Smiths started up their pickup truck and threw it in reverse.

Jesse honked his horn to signal to the woman that they were coming to check on her, and then he hollered out his window for her to get in the back.

The woman realized the family was trying to help her and began running towards them.

But while she was on her way, the man who just attacked her turned his car around and headed back down the hill.

He was driving fast and swerving back and forth between the lanes.

So Jesse drove quickly to try and close the distance between his truck and the woman, but he wasn't fast enough.

Just as she was about ten feet away from the bed of his pickup, the guy in the Buick struck both the woman and the back of Jesse's truck.

The impact was so great that the truck ended up diving about twenty feet down an embankment with him and his family still inside.

Thankfully, though, the Smiths' vehicle was stopped by a tree, and they were mostly uninjured, but the same could not be said for the man who crashed into them or the woman they tried to help.

The driver in the Buick had been knocked unconscious, and his vehicle was on fire.

The woman he'd hit was dead.

The Grand County Sheriff's Office that investigated this incident provided me with several photos of the aftermath of this scene, and they're pretty jarring.

The front end of the Buick was completely charred and destroyed.

The Smiths' truck was also banged up where it had come to rest down the embankment, and the woman, she was left lying dead in the roadway.

It's unclear what happened next, but as far as I can tell from the available source material and investigative reports, it seems Moab City Police officers were the first to arrive on the scene.