FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – Police are still searching for the person or persons who removed Robert D. Landry, 19, from the scene of a motor vehicle accident that resulted in the death of two young men.
The accident took place shortly after 10 p.m. Oct. 5 on Center Street at the intersection of Ginesi Drive.
Michael C. Baldwin, 20, of Freehold Township, who police are almost 100 percent certain was driving the 2005 Dodge Neon, was traveling on Center Street when he failed to negotiate a curb, according to Freehold Township Police Officer Patrick Fallon. The vehicle struck a curb, a telephone pole and a street sign before overturning.
Baldwin died at the scene of the accident.
According to Fallon, passengers Savonte B. Parker, 19, of Howell, and Justin T. Freeman, 19, of Freehold Borough, were transported to Jersey Shore University Medical Center, Neptune, for treatment of their injuries.
According to a hospital spokesman, Freeman was discharged on Oct. 10 and Parker was released from the hospital on Oct. 11.
Michael A. Phillips, 19, of Freehold Township, and Landry were both treated at CentraState Medical Center, Freehold Township, before being transferred to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital, New Brunswick.
Phillips died at 5:10 p.m. Oct. 6.
Landry was eventually released from the New Brunswick hospital.
According to Fallon, Landry was removed from the scene of the accident by unknown individuals and dropped off at his family’s home in Freehold Borough. A family member subsequently brought him to CentraState Medical Center. Hospital employees notified police that they might be treating a victim of the Center Street accident.
Police do not know how Landry left the accident scene or who transported him home.
Fallon said police officers who spoke with Landry’s father reported that the man said his son does not remember anything about the accident. The teenager sustained head injuries in the crash when he was thrown from the vehicle.
Landry had already been removed from the scene of the accident by the time police arrived on South Street.
Fallon said police have determined there were other cars following Baldwin’s vehicle. The young people in the two cars following Baldwin’s vehicle were all friends and were all apparently going to the same destination that Fallon said was “somewhere in Poet’s Corner. That’s all we know.”
The Poet’s Corner housing development and shopping center is on Kozloski Road less than a mile from where the accident occurred.
Fallon said police have determined that speed was definitely a factor in the crash that killed Baldwin and Phillips. The cars following the vehicle were far behind Baldwin as he advanced along Center Street and did not witness the accident. By the time they caught up with Baldwin, the crash had already occurred, Fallon said.