Long Beach : Police Chief’s Daughter Dies in Truck Crash on Freeway
Police Chief Lawrence Binkley’s 19-year-old daughter was killed in a traffic accident last weekend while returning home from a family wedding.
Wendy Leigh Pearson, Binkley’s daughter from a previous marriage, and Sanford Lewis Lathrop III, 21, died from severe head injuries late Saturday night.
Both were thrown from a pickup truck that went off Interstate 5 and into a center divider in Fresno County, according to California Highway Patrol Sgt. Bill Praetz. It was not clear who was driving the 1988 Ford Ranger, Praetz said. Neither Pearson nor Lathrop was wearing seat belts, he said. The cause of the accident is under investigation.
The couple, both of Canyon Country near Newhall, had been attending a family wedding in Northern California, which the chief also had attended, according to a police spokesman. A funeral service for Pearson was held Wednesday in Lancaster.
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