Ashley Harris attended a house party in Lincoln County, Missouri, on April 29, 2023, along with hundreds of other teens. At some point, things got out of control, prompting a call to the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. There were no adults at the house that night, and deputies broke up the party. Haunting body cam footage has now been released, and it shows deputies warning that if anyone got into an accident that night, the fault would lie on the adults who owned the home.
The footage, which was obtained by Fox 2, shows deputies trying to find an adult in charge at the home just outside of Old Monroe. A sheriff’s deputy asked a teenager to get a parent, but the teenager responded that no parents were there. The deputy warns that he knows what’s going on at the home.
“I know everybody’s drinking and smoking because I can smell it,” he said.
As deputies cleared the party, one made a haunting remark to partygoers. “So, if somebody leaves and there’s an accident – and the party – and somebody gets injured or hurt, then it’s on your parents,” the officer said.
Deputies yelled for drivers to turn on their headlights and told one driver to turn off the windshield wipers because “It ain’t rainin’,” per Fox 2.
Moments later, the deputy’s premonition came true. Harris, who was just 16 at the time, crashed her Chevy Impala head-on into a Hyundai Elantra driven by 23-year-old Rachael Grace Neldon, the Lincoln County Journal reported. The body cam footage cuts to deputies running to try to rescue the five people involved in the crash.
‘“We now have a car accident. We have somebody trapped in the car and now it’s on fire, because it came from this party,” a deputy said in the footage.
According to court documents obtained by the newspaper, Harris had alcohol and marijuana in her system the night of the crash. Harris, Neldon, and two other passengers in Harris’ car died in the fiery crash. One 18-year-old passenger in her car survived the accident.
Lincoln County Sheriff Rick Harrell told Fox 2 the crash devastated him. He personally reviewed all the body cam footage and claims deputies never had direct contact with Harris. Fox 2 asked why deputies allowed any teenager who appeared intoxicated to leave the premises. Harrell cited “individual civil liberties.”
He said the alcohol was in the kitchen and not in the hands of the minors. He clarified in a follow-up statement.
“Missouri law requires specific and articulable facts, such as visible intoxication or possession, before law enforcement may lawfully detain a juvenile. In this case, those legal thresholds were not met,” the sheriff noted.
Neldon’s parents, Jennifer Lamb Neldon and Thomas Neldon, filed a wrongful death suit in August against Harris’ estate. The grieving mother posts about her daughter often on Facebook. On October 8, she shared a powerful message.
“Just remember, there was only ONE sober victim on April 29, 2023. She was in her own lane, wearing her seatbelt, going under the speed limit. She did not attend a party. She was simply going home. EVERYONE else involved made a choice,” she wrote in her post.
There is so much to unpack here. Civil liberties and allowing minors to drive when they appear intoxicated makes no sense. Jennifer Lamb Neldon is right: Her daughter was an innocent victim. The person responsible for killing the others is dead, so her parents have to clean up this mess. At the end of the day, the footage shows police telling teenagers to drive away. Where is their culpability?
