A Panama City Beach woman died Sunday after being ejected from a vehicle in what Georgia State Patrol officials believe to be an intentional car crash in Long County, Ga.
Gerard Lucien Pepin, 62, and his wife, Gina Marie Pepin, 59, were traveling in a 2007 Ford Mustang on U.S. 301 near George Swindell Road in Long County, a rural area just southwest of Fort Stewart, when the vehicle veered off the highway and crashed into a wooded area, officials reported.
Neither of the victims was wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident.
Gina Pepin was pronounced dead at the scene, and survivor Gerard Pepin was airlifted to Memorial Health University Medical Center in Savannah.
Georgia authorities said they were already on the lookout for the Mustang after a housekeeper at the Richmond Mills hotel, where the couple had been staying, found suspicious items in their room and called police. Reports said the couple departed the hotel at 10:30 a.m. and crashed shortly after noon.
Circumstances leading up to the crash are still under investigation by the Georgia State Patrol, Richmond Hill Police Department and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Gerard Pepin was out on bond stemming from a case in Volusia County in which the therapist was charged with blackmailing a patient for sex in June. Georgia officials said he will face additional charges from the accident.