From the archives: First kindness, then shattered lives after fatal 2003 drunk driving crash in Raleigh

This News &Observer story originally was published Nov. 9, 2003.

A backyard barbecue. Parents Weekend. A road trip to Chapel Hill. Nothing special.

A neighbor. A nurse and her family. A bunch of college guys. Nobody famous.

The first day of November was warm, and the home team won the big football game. After dark, at the intersection of Nowell Road and N.C. 54 west of Raleigh, a car ran a stop sign, colliding with another car. A few people stopped to help, then a few more. Someone called 911. No serious injuries reported.

But inside seven minutes, at the end of an ordinary day filled with ordinary pleasures, 17 people put aside their affairs and offered their hands to strangers in need, for all of them an ordinary act of kindness. Then, in a moment, a flash, six of them lay dead or dying.

It was the deadliest traffic accident in Wake County since 1982. The scene shocked the professionals who responded.

The speed of their deaths is not unfamiliar; car accidents usually kill quickly, especially those involving pedestrians.

But the events of eight days ago organized themselves because a gigantic number of factors, most of them utterly insignificant, randomly merged. One minute sooner or later, one foot nearer or farther, for anyone involved, and the day could have ended in an ordinary way.

For Gene-Marie Alfaro of Waxhaw, near Charlotte, Parents Weekend at N.C. State University began Thursday night, Oct. 30. She called her best friend to say she would not make their monthly gathering to pray the rosary. She and her husband, Robert, were leaving the next day for Raleigh to see their fraternal-twin sons on campus.

In Greenville that Friday, five buddies gathered to do Halloween right. Bill Mallison, 18, came down from college in the nation’s capital to meet his old pals Walter Manning, 18, and William Woolard, 18, for the revels at East Carolina University, Woolard’s school.

Manning brought along two new friends from Campbell University: Nolan Myers, 18, a happy-go-lucky guy from Minnesota, and Myers’ best friend, Steve Cox, 19.

The Campbell students “all pretty much aspired to be great,” Cox said, and they conferred on themselves a name suitable to their ambitions: the Caesars. The Halloween costume must accord with their title, so they used bedsheets to fashion togas. The guys drank beer, took in a street party and did not get to sleep until 5 a.m.

In Raleigh that Saturday morning, a short distance from the intersection of Nowell Road and N.C. 54, Christopher Clemons, 41, parked a lawn chair outside his house on Lincolnville Road and listened to the birds. Across the street, from the dark of a screened-in front porch, he heard his neighbor, Louise Brown: “Hey, Chris, bring me my paper!”

When he delivered it, Clemons and Brown talked about the tree in the yard that Clemons had chopped down a week before. Brown said she offered Clemons some coffee. Before he left, he checked on Brown’s mother.

Evening preparations

In the Harnett County town of Coats, Bryan Tutor, 29, awoke excited about going to see the NCSU-Virginia game with his friend, Dennis Bowes. Tutor’s wife, Mandy, dozed in bed, their 5-month-old son, Carson, in her arms.

Tutor pulled out his No. 17 Wolfpack jersey and asked how it would look over a long-sleeved shirt. Mandy said sleepily, “Why would you need long sleeves? It’s going to be warm.” Tutor chose a red polo shirt. He leaned over, kissed his son and his wife and said, “I love you.” She replied, “Be careful.”

At Bowes’ home in Cary, the alarm went off about 8:30 a.m. He got up and fed the dogs. His girlfriend, Lauren Murphy, said she ran out for biscuits. An hour later, Bowes, 28, put the grill from a portable Coleman cooker in the kitchen sink and scrubbed it.

At 10 a.m., Tutor arrived with his blue GMC Sonoma pickup already loaded with a borrowed generator and a television, to watch other games while tailgating. The friends packed the Coleman, a cooler and fold-up camping chairs. On the way to the game, they stopped at a grocery for bratwursts.

About the same time, a vanload of student assistants to the football team, including Baron Fulk, 20, arrived at Carter-Finley Stadium. Fulk helped set up tubs of Gatorade, water bottles and cups and took the emergency medical equipment onto the field: a spine board, crutches and other supplies.

In Greenville, the Caesars ate cereal then drove the 100 miles back to Campbell in Buies Creek. Woolard and Mallison stayed in Greenville for a bit, then joined the others in Buies Creek to plan the road trip over to Chapel Hill to visit friends.

At Carter-Finley, the Western Wake Volunteer Fire Department took up its usual position for the game. The firefighters treated a few people for minor problems and put out a small fire.

A few miles away at the NCSU library, Firas Naji, a pre-med student, finished studying and went to his family’s home in Morrisville, looking forward to sundown, when observant Muslims could break the daily Ramadan fast.

The home team wins

Kickoff was at 3:36 p.m. As quarterback Philip Rivers, running back T.A. McLendon and other offensive players came off the field between plays, Fulk handed them towels, squirted water into their mouths or gave them cups of Gatorade.

The game ended about 7 p.m., and the roaring crowds dispatched word of a huge Wolfpack victory for miles. Fulk and the other assistants jumped up and down, hugging each other. Fans packed up blankets and seat pads to leave the stadium. From Cary, Bowes’ girlfriend called Tutor’s cell phone, and Tutor said he and Bowes were going to hang out and watch the end of another game on television.

In Buies Creek, the college guys piled into Manning’s Jeep for Chapel Hill, with Myers as co-pilot and Woolard and Mallison in back. Cox stayed behind to finish a paper, which surprised his best friend.

“Nolan said, ‘I guess this will be the first time you’ve turned down a good time,’ “ Cox recalled. “I said something like, ‘I’ll try not to make a trend of it.’ “

That evening, a waxing moon reached the top of a clear sky at about 7 p.m., when Clemons was dancing to music at a friend’s pig-pickin’. He was usually the last guy to leave any party, but at 8:20, his brother wanted to go. Since Clemons did not drive, he went along, taking home two plates of barbecue.

After dinner, Naji and his 10-year-old brother, Sammy, drove to the Raleigh mosque for evening prayers. He made a mental note not to stay long so that he could get home to study.

About 8:30, Tutor and Bowes finished loading the tailgating supplies and left for home. Another fan at the game, Martha West of the Cherokee County town of Marble, got in her car to go to a hotel for the night.

The Western Wake firefighters rolled their engine back to the firehouse on District Drive, where they saluted the retiring assistant chief with chocolate cake. Lt. Shevais Shrum made several attempts to leave, but he kept forgetting his digital camera, his radio, his turnout gear. He got razzed a lot.

Stopping to help

West of the fairgrounds, Hillsborough Street becomes N.C. 54. The city street lamps end. The intersection with Nowell Road is dark but for the indirect glare from the state surplus parking lot and the dim aurora from Carter-Finley. The speed limit on N.C. 54 is 45 mph. The intersection tops a hill from all directions.

A friend gave Fulk a ride to his green Chevrolet Blazer. He climbed in and headed south on Nowell Road. Police later said Fulk ran the stop sign to make a right turn onto N.C. 54.

As he entered the road, West hit him with her silver Chevrolet Blazer. The force of the collision spun Fulk’s SUV around. It stopped diagonally in the eastbound lane, with the left front tire and much of the engine compartment in another lane. West’s Blazer barreled into a ditch fronting the state surplus lot.

The accident looked like it might have caused injuries, so people began pulling over to help, among them some fraternity brothers from NCSU and an off-duty Bayleaf firefighter. Someone called 911 at 8:39 p.m.

Driving west on N.C. 54, Tutor was talking on the phone with a friend, Gary Pelletier, but interrupted to say, “Hey, it looks like there’s a wreck up ahead. We’re going to stop and check it out. I’ll call you back.”

At his home on Lincolnville Road, two-tenths of a mile away from the intersection, Clemons heard the crash. He hopped on a battered old bicycle.

The Alfaros also stopped, at the insistence of Gene-Marie, a nurse. Her husband followed her as she went to help. Their twin sons sat on the ground outside the car and waited.

As Manning’s Jeep approached with the four college guys en route to Chapel Hill, Myers asked him to stop. The guys found the bedsheets that the night before had been imperial togas, and they ran to help, even though Mallison warned not to move anyone who was injured. At 8:41, Manning called 911 to report the accident.

White van approaches

The driver of the green Blazer lay on the asphalt next to his SUV. At least eight people stood over him in the road, their backs to the white Econoline van fast approaching them heading east on N.C. 54. Behind the wheel was Larry Veeder, 32, described as a kind and sweet soul who taught himself piano, accordion and harmonica and clowned for children’s parties under the name Blinker.

Naji, returning from the mosque with his little brother on N.C. 54, saw cars making U-turns at the intersection. He passed the green Blazer then pulled over, telling Sammy to stay put. He saw the silver Blazer in the ditch; a man called out that everything was OK there.

Naji walked up the hill and saw a woman kneeling by an injured man’s head. Another man knelt down with the woman. An older man, apparently the woman’s husband, stood near, and so did two other young men, one in a red polo shirt. Three guys brought over bedsheets.

Without a warning, the scene exploded.

Naji felt the van’s rush just inches from him. The woman was just getting to her feet when the van struck her, then it hit the four other men, then the college students. It mowed bodies down or tossed them into the air. It slammed into the green Blazer and finally spun around to a halt. Its broken horn screamed.

A shout: “Somebody better get on the phone right now!”

Nearby, Naji watched two young men suddenly run back and forth, sobbing, grabbing each other, separating, running apart, coming together again. Naji heard one ask, “Is my mom going to be OK?”

Mallison, near Manning’s Jeep, raced into the road. Myers was dead. He found Woolard still alive and stayed at his friend’s side.

The third 911 call logged in at 8:46 p.m., but the Western Wake volunteer firefighters never got that information. At 8:47 p.m., the department rescue vehicle arrived, Lt. Shrum at the wheel. All he knew was that there had been a motor vehicle accident with injuries, nothing that sounded out of the ordinary. As Shrum stopped the rescue truck, its headlights caught only the form of a body in the middle of the intersection.

Seconds later, the fire engine pulled up, and its big high beams lit up the carnage. Shrum could not believe it.

“I have never seen anything like it,” he said later. “Surreal.” The scene left him sleepless for days afterward.

He smelled antifreeze, the cornstarch from the van’s airbag, bodily fluids.

He heard the van’s horn, going on and on and on. Shrum turned to another firefighter and said, “You’ve got to make that noise go away.”

A confusing scene

Because the intersection lay just outside Raleigh’s city limits, the state Highway Patrol had to respond. Wake County’s 911 center did not call the patrol until 8:51 p.m., 12 minutes after the first accident. A trooper at the Beltline interchange with Capital Boulevard took off, arriving 11 minutes later, at 9:02 p.m.

More officers and responders showed up. The situation grew so confusing that the Highway Patrol relied on a witness identification of one of the dead as the driver of the green Blazer, which the patrol’s spokesman passed on to the media.

Woolard and Manning were severely injured and went to WakeMed, along with Fulk and West. A family friend picked up the Alfaro twins. Mallison fished out Woolard’s cell phone in the Jeep and started making phone calls. Naji rushed to check on Sammy, whose little face was pressed to the car window.

Police and firefighters cleared the intersection at 3 a.m. Sunday. As the week progressed, funerals came and went, although Christopher Clemons’ family did not have money for a burial. Myers’ parents flew to Raleigh to see the place so far from home where their son died trying to help a stranger. The Alfaros’ sons planned the rite for their parents at their Roman Catholic church in Charlotte. The service ended with the singing of an Irish blessing that begins, “May the road rise up to meet you.”

West left WakeMed the next day and returned to Marble, where she refused interview requests. Manning, Woolard and Fulk are still in the hospital. Woolard and Fulk were listed in good condition and Manning in fair condition Saturday night.

Anger, questions arise

The van driver, Veeder, was charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter and drunken driving, although the Highway Patrol and the Wake County District Attorney’s Office would not release results of a blood-alcohol test. Nor would authorities tell what they knew about Veeder‘s whereabouts that night. Veeder‘s lawyer said that when he visited his client in the Wake County jail, the man could barely speak for his shock and grief.

Widespread anger rose at Veeder. Some relatives of the dead developed the mistaken impression that he was a habitual drunken driver. In fact, he was found guilty in 1990 of “aiding and abetting” drunken driving, and further details on that case were not available. Otherwise, Veeder had four speeding convictions and one knock on his record for driving without a license.

On Monday, Veeder appeared in court to hear a judge read the charges against him. His parents arrived from Kansas, and they issued a statement praising their son as someone who “shared his home with the homeless, planted flowers on downtown streets to beautify his neighborhood and idolized heroes whose messages were ones of peace, love and nonviolence.”

He is, they said, the kind of person who, “had he first happened upon the accident scene, would have also been first to stop and render assistance. That gentle, caring man will live forever now with the knowledge that he was the instrument that violated everything he believed in.”

A confluence of terrible circumstances brought a group of people to a crossroads on the edge of Raleigh, and in a heartbeat, an autumn Saturday of barbecue and Parents Weekend and a road trip mutated into That Day.

The simple things that filled the final hours of six lives suddenly changed color, at first taking on the gray of omen. But time can recast everything. It burnishes memory with the certainty that any moment can be the last, and there is no such thing as an ordinary day.

What to know about the fatal 2003 accident

What happened

On Nov. 1, 2003, an N.C. State-Virginia football game ended with a win for his Wolfpack. Raleigh roads nearby clogged as the crowd of 53,000 left Carter-Finley Stadium.

About 8:40 p.m., a Chevrolet Blazer made a right turn at a stop sign, turning from Nowell Road onto N.C. 54. Another SUV, coming on the highway with the right-of-way, slammed into the Blazer. Police would later decide that the Blazer had run the stop sign

Approaching cars stopped, the drivers and passengers fearing injuries at the crash scene they’d encountered. People scurried to help; some called 911.

Larry Veeder approached the wreck site and plowed through the crowd. His speed was over 40 mph when he hit them.

The victims

Those killed were:

• Bryan Matthew Tutor, 29, of Coats, and Dennis Wayne Bowes, 28, of Cary.  The two friends attended the NCSU-Virginia game. After it ended, they were going to watch another game on TV.
• Robert Alfaro Jr., 46, and his wife, Gene-Marie, 48, of Waxhaw. They were visiting their twin sons at N.C. State University. They stopped to help at the urging of Gene-Marie, a nurse.
• Christopher Clemons, 41, of Raleigh. He lived nearby and rode his bike to the crash scene.
• Nolan Phillip Myers, 18, a Campbell University student from Minnesota. He was on the way to Chapel Hill.

The injured were:

• Walter Manning, of Washington, N.C., a Campbell student,
• William Woolard, of Washington, N.C., an East Carolina University student. Both were on the way to Chapel Hill with Myers.

The plea & the aftermath

• On April 23, 2004, Larry Robert Veeder, then 32, admitted that he caused the Nov. 1, 2003, accident. He pleaded guilty to six counts of involuntary manslaughter and two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury.
• He had been in jail since the night of the accident and faced up to 17 years in prison.
• Superior Court Judge James C. Spencer Jr. sent Veeder to prison for 8 1/2 years to almost 11 years. 
• Veeder was released on Jan. 11, 2012.
• As of August 2025, he has lived in the Rochester region since 2012, months after his release from prison.