A Gainesville woman behind the wheel in a June wreck that killed five people, including three children, had methamphetamine in her system, according to a toxicology report released Friday by the Georgia State Patrol.
Amanda Lynn Pardue, 34, died in the June 30 wreck when the Ford Explorer she was driving crossed into the path of a tractor-trailer on Athens Highway at Oak Grove Road.
Results of blood tests by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab showed Pardue tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine and other drugs.
“She had a high level of methamphetamines along with other prescription medications,” said Gainesville GSP Post Commander Chad Johnson.
The report states Pardue tested positive for meth levels “higher than the highest caliber of 800 micrograms per liter.”
Robbie Adams Hollis, 52, also died in the wreck, along with three children: Dalton Martin, 13, Kaleigh Emfinger, 8, and Eli Emfinger, 2.
“It definitely makes me very sick to my stomach,” said Janice Martin, Dalton’s stepmother, when learning of the GSP report.
No toxicology reports were available for the passengers of the vehicle.
The tractor-trailer driver, Eric Franklin Eberhardt, 34, of Commerce, was treated for his injuries. Eberhardt could not be reached for comment.
In 2009, Pardue, under the name Amanda Lynn Cruz, faced charges for attempting to manufacture methamphetamine and two counts of cruelty to children in the second degree. The Hall County Sheriff’s Office found muriatic acid, fertilizer, lithium strips, tubing and ephedrine packets in her possession, according to court documents.
Pardue pleaded guilty in 2010 to the methamphetamine charge. After fulfilling the requirements for Hall County Drug Court in 2013, she was able to withdraw her original guilty plea, and the district attorney’s office decided to nolle prosequi, meaning it did not pursue, the charge. Subsequently, the child cruelty charge was also dismissed.
“I hate that it had to come to something like this to open everybody’s eyes,” Dalton’s father Samuel Martin said.