Aric Hutchinson speaks with another mourner at a memorial for Samantha Miller, seen inset, in Folly Beach, South Carolina, May 13, 2023. (Screen capture via WCSC; GoFundMe)
The South Carolina man whose bride died while she was still wearing her wedding dress, on their wedding night, spoke publicly for the first time this weekend at a memorial service for his late wife.
“She would have loved it,” Aric Hutchinson said on the same beach where the couple got married and lost. “It’s Sam. I mean, she’s a beach girl, through and through. We walk around here almost every morning, and that’s for sure her go. She’s up there smiling all the way. on.
“I feel pretty good,” the grieving husband added in comments reported by Charleston-based CBS affiliate WCSC. “My body is coming back to where I can handle myself, I guess. It’s as good as I can feel with the situation, but obviously today and the influx of people was just amazing. I know Sam would love that.
Samantha Miller, 34, died after Jamie Lee Komoroski, 25, allegedly driving with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, rammed her rental car into the back of the city’s golf cart nuptials on a road in Folly Beach, South Carolina, at around 10 p.m. on April 28.
A GoFundMe has raised several hundred thousand dollars to help with the family’s recovery and grief process.
Hutchinson suffered a brain injury as a result of the crash, which occurred moments after the couple’s wedding reception.
Two other people in the golf cart at the time were also injured when the car sent the smaller vehicle about 100 yards and flipped over multiple times from the impact.
Hutchinson’s brother-in-law, Ben Garret, is currently recovering at his home in Utah. He suffers severe rashes and skin lacerations from the accident. The other passenger in the golf cart was Garret’s 17-year-old son, who is also back home in Utah.
“All occupants of the LSV/golf cart suffered varying degrees of injury, including death,” Folly Beach Public Safety Director Andrew Gilreath said in a statement after the shocking and tragic incident. “Occupants were leading the newlyweds back to their rental home when they were hit.”
Komoroski, the alleged drunk driver, was not injured in the crash.
According to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division (SLED), the drunk driver was traveling 65 mph at the time of impact in the largely residential area, which has a 40 mph speed limit. She was charged with three counts of impaired driving causing grievous bodily harm/death and one count of reckless homicide.
Komoroski reportedly refused a field sobriety test and reeked of alcohol, telling law enforcement she had only had a beer and a shot with tequila about an hour before the crash, said wrote the police in an affidavit. According to at least one witness at the scene, the accused repeated several times that she “did nothing wrong”.
Police also said Komoroski told officers she was driving home at the time of the crash. Police, however, say she was traveling in the exact opposite direction on a dead end street. When an officer asked Komoroski if she knew what happened, she reportedly said “something” hit her “all of a sudden” while she was driving.
The accused is being held without bail at the Charleston County Detention Center.
“We cannot understand what the families are going through and offer our deepest condolences,” Komoroski attorneys Nathan S. Williams and Christopher S. Gramiccioni said in a written statement. “We just ask that there is no rush to judgement. Our judicial system is founded on the principles of justice and mercy, and that is where all the facts will come to light.
At least 100 people attended Miller’s celebration of life on Saturday morning, WCSC reported. Several of the mourners then paddled out into the ocean waters of the Atlantic Ocean and dropped flowers in honor of the deceased woman.
The word “Sam” was written on the stems.
The widower attended his wife’s memorial in a wheelchair with a large blanket over one leg. He welcomed everyone who came out for his family.
“It’s a bit overwhelming; but these are, i mean, these are sincere, genuine, good-hearted people who reach out and felt a reason to, or somehow they were touched by Sam “said Hutchinson. “It just means the world. She left that impact.
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