DAD: DAUGHTER ON ‘HIGH NOTE’ NIGHT BEFORE SHE DIED
Father of victim says ‘there’s a lot of suspicion’ about death.
Sugarcreek Twp. police are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a 27-yearold pregnant woman who was found dead after her car went off the road and landed in a retention pond Friday afternoon.
Samantha Botts, of Sugarcreek Twp., was 23 days away from delivering her second child, her father Sam Toler said Monday.
Toler said he last spoke with his daughter Thursday evening when she came for a visit at the family’s Germantown home. When she left, she was on a “high note”, excited for the baby boy she was about to deliver, her father said.
Botts also had a 1-year-old daughter, Toler said.
“She loved that baby more than life and the one that was coming, she was living for,” he said.
The Greene County Coroner’s Office completed an autopsy on Botts over the weekend, but said it could be several weeks before any results are available.
Toler said the family was unaware of any medical issues that could have caused Botts to have an accident. There was no initial evidence of alcohol or drug use or visible trauma, according to initial police reports.
Toler said his family isn’t ruling out any possibilities in Botts’ death.
Botts, who was a cheerleader during her time at Preble Shawnee High School, found a love for softball and had been working as a high school softball umpire, traveling from state to state, her father said.
Police said it appears the Honda Accord she was in went off the road on Briggs Road, about a quarter mile from the pond, struck a fire hydrant, then went up a small hill before rolling through a fence and going into the water.
There are no reported witnesses, so it’s unknown how long the car was in the water before being spotted, according to police. Botts was last seen at her apartment complex around 4 p.m. Friday. Calls to 911 dispatchers reporting her car in the pond came in around 4:45 p.m.
Sgt. Mark White of the Sugarcreek Twp. Police Department said the road near the pond is not considered a high accident area.
Toler, who hasn’t been to the site of the crash, said he thought some of the circumstances of his daughter’s death were strange. He said Botts was always “adamant” about wearing a seat belt, but he said she her seat belt was not on when she was found. He also said she wasn’t “afraid” of water and at one point in her life was a good swimmer.
“With everything we’ve been told, there’s a lot of suspicion. That’s as far as I can comment,” he said. “We’re hurting so I wouldn’t want to speculate as far as what it could be.”
Funeral services for Botts will be held at 5 p.m. Wednesday, March 15, at Dalton Funeral Home, 6900 Weaver Rd. in Germantown.