Overview
- The traffic stop took place just after 11:55 p.m. Sunday on southbound Route 55 in Mantua Township when officers pulled over a vehicle for a traffic violation.
- Prosecutors say a 41-year-old backseat passenger, identified as Holly Hageman, was ordered out of the car but instead moved to the driver’s seat and fled with a 5-year-old inside.
- Officers unsuccessfully tried to stop the vehicle and later learned from New Jersey State Police that the car crashed into a tree about three miles from the original stop.
- Hageman sustained fatal injuries in the crash and the 5-year-old was injured with injuries described by authorities as not life-threatening, and the original driver was taken to the Mantua Township Police Department.
- The Gloucester County Prosecutor’s Office is leading an active investigation into the sequence of events and the actions taken by those involved, a probe that could lead to reviews of traffic-stop procedures and interagency notification practices.