Roanoke County Police have received confirmation from the Medical Examiner's Office that the body recovered Saturday afternoon off of Bent Mountain Road is that of Sarabeth Rose Hammond. The cause of death is listed as blunt force trauma to the head. Police believe speed was a factor in the accident.
Hammond was traveling in the northbound lane and in a sharp curve of the road when her
vehicle struck a landscaping wall in front of a home in the 9200 block of Bent Mountain Road.
The vehicle then went over a steep hillside. A caretaker of the home that is vacant and up for sale
stopped by the home Saturday afternoon and noticed damage to the wall and debris in the yard.
Upon further inspection, he spotted the vehicle nearly 150 yards down the heavily wooded slope
behind the home. He called dispatch at 2:01 p.m. Hammond was ejected from the vehicle and
found 50 yards away from it. Roanoke County Fire & Rescue personnel recovered Hammond at
3:55 p.m. and the vehicle at 6:00 p.m.
The last known signal from Hammond's cell phone was December 28 at 6:30 p.m. Using cell
phone analysis, Roanoke County Police and Virginia State Police conducted an air search Friday
across a portion of Bent Mountain but nothing was discovered.