UPDATE : 54-Year-Old Leonardtown Woman Killed in Valley Lee Motor Vehicle Collision

September 18, 2017

UPDATE 9/18/2017: On September 17, 2017, at approximately 8:00 p.m., patrol deputies from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office responded to the area of Piney Point Road and Blake Creek Road for the report of a serious motor vehicle collision.

Due to the nature of the collision, The St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office Collision Reconstruction Unit was requested.

The preliminary investigation determined a 1999 Toyota Corolla operated by Shelia Marie Hardesty, 54, of Leonardtown, was traveling southbound on Piney Point Road when, for unknown reasons, the vehicle crossed the center line and into northbound traffic. The vehicle then struck a 2005 GMC Sierra 2500 operated by James Matthew Bowes Jr., 24, of Leonardtown.

Hardesty was pronounced deceased at the scene. Bowes was transported to St. Mary’s Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

Preliminarily, neither speed nor alcohol is believed to be a contributing factor.

Anyone with further information regarding this collision, please contact Deputy John Davis at (240)496-6695 or by email, [email protected].

9/17/2017: On Sunday, September 17, 2017, at approximately 8:00 p.m., St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office Deputies responded to a motor vehicle crash, on Piney Point Road, in Valley Lee.

Deputies arrived on scene with emergency medical personnel to discover a two vehicles involved in a a head-on collision.

Emergency medical personnel pronounced the occupant of the passenger vehicle deceased on the scene.

Members of the Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Team are responding to the scene and will assume the investigation.

Anyone who may have witnessed the collision is asked to contact the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office at 301-475-4040.

The investigation is ongoing and updates will be provided as they become available.