Sheriff’s deputy Andy McDowell was forced to live a parent’s worst nightmare twice in a matter of minutes.
After he was taken to the site where one of his two sons was killed in a car crash early Wednesday, McDowell was driven past another fatal accident. Only later did he learn that the fiery wreck took the life of his only other child.
“You take the most unimaginable hell that a parent could be told and double that,” Warren County Deputy Coroner Dwayne Lawrence said.
Rory McDowell, 23, and Cory McDowell, 21, both died within a couple of miles from the home they shared with their father in southern Kentucky’s rural Warren County.
Rory McDowell lost control of his pickup truck coming out of a curve and the vehicle struck a tree shortly before 1:30 a.m., authorities said. There was no visible sign of alcohol involved, sheriff’s Capt. Brent Brown said Thursday.
The father told authorities he had been talking with Rory McDowell on a cell phone about the time of the crash, Brown said. He said that might have been a factor in the crash, as well as excessive speed on a narrow road. He had no further details.
About 15 minutes after the first crash, Cory McDowell’s 1984 Porsche veered off another rural road, went into a spin, struck a tree and burst into flames, authorities said.
The crashes remained under investigation, police said.
Authorities said the father had always doted on his sons. “That’s all he talked about was his boys,” said sheriff’s department Sgt. Tim Meyer. “He lived for his boys.”
Warren County is about 110 miles southwest of Louisville.