NEW: Preble investigators using interviews, search warrants to create timeline of road rage crash

EATON — Wednesday, a local family posted on their Facebook page, “Justice for Megan” that 19-year-old Megan Riley is in critical condition after a second surgery. They added in the post Riley needs “all the prayers she can get” after she was hurt in a fiery crash in Preble County early Saturday morning.

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The Preble County Sheriff’s Office and the Ohio State Highway Patrol say road rage played a role in the wreck that injured Riley. Preble County deputies and state troopers are working together on the investigation into what led up to the serious crash along State Route 503 at Sommers Gratis Road just south of Gratis just after 1 a.m. Saturday.

Wednesday, News Center 7′s John Bedell went to Eaton to talk to Preble County Sheriff Mike Simpson about where the investigation stands in a story WHIO first reported Monday.

Simpson said deputies and troopers are using interviews, search warrants and trying to track down several pieces of digital evidence as parts of their probe into what led up to the serious crash and who’s responsible for it.

“Our goal is to find out exactly what occurred and then if there’s criminal charges there, to hold people accountable,” Sheriff Simpson said Wednesday.

The sound of the impact woke up Mashea Willis and her husband right after 1 a.m. Saturday morning. “We ran outside to find a car flipped over there on the other side of our pond and then another car across the street and it was completely on fire,” Willis told News Center 7′s Sean Cudahy Monday afternoon. “It was completely in flames, you could not tell what kind of vehicle it was.”

Riley’s family posted pictures of her charred SUV on social media after the wreck.

The crash prompted 911 calls from neighbors besides Willis. “There’s a car crash! There’s a car burning,” one caller told Preble County emergency dispatchers.

Riley also made her own 911 call before the impact. News Center 7 is not broadcasting the lengthy emergency call out of respect for her. But, WHIO did listen to the call and in it, Riley said she was being chased telling a dispatcher at one point, “They’re going to run me off the side of the road.” She was on the phone with dispatchers when the wreck happened. The call goes silent at that moment.

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Sheriff Simpson said there were “occupants” in the second car involved in the crash, but he wouldn’t say exactly how many people were in the vehicle. The sheriff did not comment much on the crash scene itself.

However, Simpson did say this was a case of road rage and that the wreck happened after some sort of spat at a party in the county earlier in the night. “We’re looking at people who were at that party -- or that gathering,” Simpson said. “And then what occurred there prior to getting the call that this young lady was being chased by another vehicle.”

The Ohio State Highway Patrol confirmed to News Center 7 Monday that all of the people involved in the crash were at that house party minutes earlier. State troopers also told WHIO Monday they recovered a gun at the crash scene.

Sheriff Simpson said his deputies and state troopers are working to gather all kinds of evidence to be able to prove who did this to Riley and why? “We’re looking at is there any vehicle information, data that could help us,” Simpson said. “We’re looking at other search warrants related to other technology that we can look at, we’re looking at homes that may have had home security, home video things like that to try and piece all this together.”

As of Wednesday evening, there were no suspects, arrests or formal criminal charges in connection with the chase and crash. But News Center 7 will keep following this story and let you know whether any of that changes.

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