Murder charge in death of bicyclist who wasn’t found until hours after Peninsula crash
A driver has been charged with murder in the death of a bicyclist whose body wasn’t found until hours after a crash on Highway 1.
The crash, around 4:20 p.m. on June 25 near San Gregorio, was initially thought by the responding officers to involve only two vehicles. A northbound Nissan Altima allegedly veered into oncoming traffic and hit a Subaru Outback. The Subaru went off the west side of the road; the Nissan, blocking the southbound lane, caught fire.
The Nissan’s driver — Samantha Mei Hartwell, 31, of Half Moon Bay — was trapped in the burning car for several minutes. After she was extricated, she and the two people in the Subaru were airlifted to Stanford Hospital.
The wreckage was cleared and the highway reopened by 6:30 p.m. — but that evening, a Half Moon Bay woman called 911 to report that her husband was hours overdue returning from a bicycle ride.
Officers returned to the crash scene and found the body of the bicyclist — 60-year-old Thomas Hampe — 40 feet down the embankment on the highway’s east side, just south of Stage Road. They determined that he had been hit by the Nissan in the moments before the cars collided, but apparently nobody had seen it.
That stretch of Highway 1 is two lanes with paved shoulders. The speed limit is 55 mph.
Hartwell’s blood-alcohol content was 0.17 percent at the time of the crash; she has two drunk driving convictions as well as multiple convictions for driving on a suspended license, according to the San Mateo County district attorney’s office.
Hartwell has been in custody since the crash on a no-bail status. She made her initial appearance in court Thursday to face charges including second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and driving under the influence of alcohol. She did not enter a plea, and the case is set to return to court on Monday for further arraignment and a defense motion to set bail, prosecutors said.
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