Man decapitated in apparent drunken car crash

<p>A man apparently drunkenly drove off the road early Sunday and hit the support wire of a telephone pole, which decapitated his passenger, according to police reports.</p><p>John Kemper Hutcherson, 21, then continued to drive 12 miles home and slept in his blood-spattered clothes, leaving the headless body of Francis Daniel Brohm, 23, in his truck overnight, police said.</p><p>"It's hard for one to imagine that you would drive (several) miles from a crash site to your home, turning in various directions, and yet not know what has happened to a passenger sitting next to you in your vehicle," said Cpl. Dana Pierce, spokesman for Cobb County police.</p><p>A neighbor out on a stroll with his baby daughter around 8 a.m. Sunday discovered Brohm's body inside the 1992 Chevrolet Z-71 parked in Hutcherson's driveway and called authorities.</p><p>Hutcherson has been charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, driving under the influence, failure to stop at an accident with death or injury and failure to maintain lanes.</p><p>Hutcherson is being held at Cobb County jail and had a first court hearing Monday morning, where a judge increased his bond from $10,000 to $100,000.</p><p>Police said Hutcherson and Brohm, who were friends since high school, were hanging out at a bar Saturday night and left after Brohm said he felt sick. About a mile and a half from the bar, Hutcherson swerved off the road and hit the support wire of a telephone pole, which severed Brohm's head, police said. They did not say why Brohm was hanging out the passenger-side window when he was struck.</p><p>Officers found Hutcherson asleep inside his home Sunday morning, still covered in blood and visibly inebriated. They later found Brohm's severed head at the crash site.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/8/161932