Left inset: Hit-and-run victim Smaah Adam (Facebook). Center inset: Eli Hampshire, the Washington state man who allegedly killed Smaah Adam (KREM). Right inset: Eli Hampshire's girlfriend, Heather Langman, who allegedly helped him hide his car after killing Smaah Adam (KREM/YouTube).
A single mother of six in Washington state who worked as a chef was crushed against her minivan by a hit-and-run driver and died in her son's arms, cops say.
Smaah Adam, 46, clung to life just long enough to tell her son, "I'm OK," as he held her in his arms and watched the Crystal Lake mom turn pale, according to court documents obtained by The Spokesman-Review.
Adam's final words, before she was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead, were reportedly "help me."
"A mom of six kids, gone," said Adam's friend, Maisa Abudayha, in an interview with The Spokesman-Review. "I want you to feel the pain that those kids feel right now," she said about the driver who was allegedly responsible, Eli Hampshire, who is facing charges of hit-and-run vehicular homicide and tampering with evidence.
"Those kids lost their mom because of [a] lack of responsibility," Abudayha said.
Hampshire and his girlfriend, Heather Langman, were both arrested after an investigation into the crash that killed Adam, according to court documents. Langman is facing a charge of first-degree criminal assistance after allegedly helping conceal Hampshire and his car from law enforcement.
According to police, the couple hid Hampshire's Ford Flex underneath a tarp and made plans to abandon it down an embankment. They allegedly transported the vehicle in the back of a trailer that was hauled by a pickup truck.
The cover-up began to unravel after police asked the public to help identify a dark-colored Ford Flex believed to have been involved in the crash, according to court documents. A woman who had sold a Ford Flex to Hampshire the day before Adam was killed recognized the vehicle and contacted authorities.
The woman and her fiance called Langman, who shares a child with the fiance, and recorded their conversation for police after asking about what happened.
"Neither one of us were driving the vehicle," Langman allegedly said. "You can't tell the cops anything about it."
When the fiance insisted they were "not taking the hit on this," Langman allegedly suggested hiding Hampshire's name.
"Don't even say who you sold it to, just say you sold it to someone … Give it a fake name for him right now," Langman allegedly said. "I don't know who the f— was driving the car. I just know there's something going on with it and we're getting rid of the car."
Surveillance footage allegedly shows Hampshire approaching a curve in the Ford Flex, losing control and then veering onto the roadside where Adam was standing beside her minivan. Hampshire continued driving without stopping and was later caught on video getting out of the vehicle to inspect the damage three minutes after the crash, according to court documents.
Adam's son told investigators his mother had opened the driver's-side door when the car hit her. He ran to her and held her as she bled from the back of her head.
Adam suffered a fractured femur and pelvis, internal bleeding and head trauma before dying from her injuries.
Hampshire's supervisor at a construction company contacted police after recognizing the vehicle from the public alert. He told investigators Hampshire had been working on the front of his car and repeatedly visiting a dumpster.
A search of that dumpster turned up a headlamp from a 2013 black Ford Flex and a piece of chrome trim, according to the court records. Investigators used location information obtained through a warrant for Hampshire's phone to track the vehicle to a remote section of Stevens County.
The Spokane County Sheriff's Office Air Support Unit located it down an embankment off Buck Creek Road, according to The Spokesman-Review.
Hampshire and Langman appeared before a judge Monday. Hampshire was ordered held on $1 million bond. Langman's bond was set at $25,000.
According to her friends and family, Adam was an Egyptian immigrant who worked as a chef at Feast World Kitchen, a nonprofit restaurant in Spokane. The restaurant remembered her in a tribute shared after her death.
"Your beautiful smile, your kindness, your generous heart, and the love you have to everyone around you will stay with us forever," the restaurant wrote on Facebook. "Please keep Smaah, her children, and all of us who loved her in your thoughts and prayers."
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