The family of a 16-month-old girl who was run over to death at a private home on Oyster Road last week will bury her on Tuesday.
A public visitation with Ember Lou Etheridge, daughter of Talon Vaughn Etheridge and Keri Elaine Golden, will begin at First Baptist Church in Apalachicola on Tuesday, January 17 at 11 am. Graveyard service at Magnolia Cemetery at noon.
“She’s a beautiful girl,” said her mother. “I’m doing the best I can. I have to be here to take care of my other two babies and that’s how I have to look at it. If it wasn’t for the other two babies, I wouldn’t be here at all.”
Sheriff’s deputies, Apalachicola police, paramedics and an ambulance from Weems Memorial Hospital were all dispatched to 545 Oyster Road near the intersection with Brownsville Road at around 1:45 p.m. .
According to the Florida Highway Patrol, a 42-year-old woman was backing a pickup truck out of a private residence when she failed to notice the child in the path of the right front wheel. The child was hit by the wheel and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Golden said her mother had driven over and was leaving to do some shopping for the family because Golden’s car was being repaired.
“She got on the truck to move it,” Golden said.
That’s when Gordon’s 3-year-old son Owen ran out the door to chase his grandmother. He was in the house along with brother Austin, 5, and sister Ember, as well as a nephew, Aidan, 4.
“I close the door behind me, but you can bang on it and it opens,” Golden said.
She said she chased her son to keep him from climbing into the truck, then made him sit on the ground.
That’s when Owen and his mother discovered to their horror that Ember had been shot.
“I started grabbing the car to get it off her and I grabbed her and she died,” Golden said. “We never knew she was outside. I just grabbed Owen and brought him in. She slipped out so fast, so fast. She never made a sound.”
Centennial Bank has set up an account in Ember Lou Etheridge’s name for those who wish to donate to her services and funeral.
