Man Apparently Killed In Crash Found Several Days Later Off I-40

According to a statement from authorities on August 21, a North Carolina Highway Patrol trooper investigating some downed traffic signs near where Interstate 40 and Interstate 85 merge in Orange County discovered a car with the body of a man who died from personal injuries inside at the bottom of a ravine.

Trooper Pam Williams said that she had notified the state Department of Transportation about three signs near Exit 259 off westbound I-40 that had been knocked down. However, she said after DOT engineers said they knew nothing about it, she returned to investigate.

When she returned, Williams said she noticed a shimmer of silver in a ravine off the side of the highway. She then went down into the ravine to check it out and discovered an overturned car with a man’s body inside.

The deceased man was identified as 28-year-old Raleigh resident Antonio Terrell Covington, whose family had been reported missing since August 10, four days after last speaking with him on the phone, according to authorities.

Williams says that Covington appears to have died in the crash, but a medical examiner plans to perform an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Authorities say they don’t know how long the car was at the bottom of the ravine. No skid marks were on the highway to indicate an accident and grass had already grown over the marks left on the embankment where the car exited the road, according to Williams.