Florida Mom Drove With Daughter's Dead Body For 2 Days

A Sunday West Virginia car crash exposed a woman who drove with her dead daughter for two days, according to the Pocahontas Times Monday.

Erica Newsome, 37, left Jacksonville on Friday with her 11-year-old daughter, Kaye-lea Plummer. She planned to drive to Buffalo, New York, where Kaye-lea’s father lives.

Read: Mom Claims She Killed Daughter To Save 6-Year-Old From Aliens

West Virginia State Police Sergeant Herby Barlow said Newsome’s car left the highway and hit a guardrail on Allegheny Mountain, about a mile and a half into the West Virginia border. Witnesses said they were first concerned for the safety of the driver until they saw Newsome take a body out of the car and drag it over a hill. The body was identified as her daughter Kaye-lea Plummer. Newsome and her daughter were found on a logging road about 150 feet from an embankment.

“If it hadn’t been for an older couple from New York City who observed the child being removed from the vehicle, we probably would have just thought it was a minor motor vehicle accident with a driver and nobody else,” Barlow said to the Pocahontas Times Monday. “It was obvious that the eleven-year-old did not die from injuries from the accident. Her injuries were non-motor vehicle injuries.”

Newsome was arrested and jailed on the charge of concealing a dead body. Her bond was placed at $50,000.

Donath Plummer, Kaye-lea Plummer’s father, told Jacksonville’s WJXT4 that Newsome informed him Saturday morning she and his daughter were traveling to Buffalo. The couple married in 2007 and separated in 2009. He had not seen his daughter since 2014, when Newsome moved her to Jacksonville, Florida. However, they kept in touch regularly by telephone.

“We didn’t always agree on everything, but she was a great mother. I don’t know how this could have happened. Something is very, very wrong,” Plummer said. “She needs help. She really needs help.”

Read: WATCH: Connecticut Car Crash Causes Vehicle To Stand On Two Wheels

Authorities concluded Kaye-lea Plummer was killed in Jacksonville. When Jacksonville law enforcement inspected Newsome and Plummer’s home, they found evidence of the crime. The Sheriff’s Office said they suspected foul play. Senior Trooper D.R. Dillon, present at the scene of the accident, recorded Newsome’s statements.

“She had picked her daughter, Kaye-lea Plummer, up from her bed and put her in her truck on Friday, August 4, and Kaye-lea did not move, eat, drink, speak or use the restroom for two days — the time span of the drive from Jacksonville, Florida to the scene of the accident.”

Officials said detectives from the Jacksonville, Florida Sheriff’s Department and the West Virginia State Police Department—Marlinton Detachment will investigate the vehicle accident and Kaye-lea Plummer’s death. Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detectives traveled Monday to West Virginia to question Newsome.