3 years after death, Joey Storie still missed
Chris Storie remembers riding with her brother, Joseph Storie, three years ago and how he furrowed his brow at the sight of four makeshift crosses near the intersection of Ocean Bay Boulevard and U.S. 158 in Kill Devil Hills. In 1999, four teenagers died when a drunken driver ran a red light there.
“That must have been a horrible accident,” Joseph Storie said.
A day later, Oct. 5, the two approached the intersection again. It was the last time they were together.
“He still lives in my memories, my heart and my soul,” she said last week from her Dudley Shoals home. “He was my brother, father figure, protector and best friend. Joey always put everyone before himself.
“Joey was the one we all went to if we needed advice, help with something or just someone to listen to us. My whole family and I have suffered such a huge loss.”
The man responsible for their loss remains free, for all the family knows. They still hope he will be caught.
“I said a long time ago, Joey’s life was priceless,” Chris Storie said. “I don’t care if he (the driver) serves one or two years, whatever they decide. But he has no remorse.
“His capture would give us some kind of closure, because now we don’t have that.”
Joey Storie, 51, was a 6-foot-tall, 200-pound, burly bear of a man. He and his wife, Alicia, had joined Chris Storie, her then-boyfriend, Paul Travis, and relatives Paul Ritch and Jim Ritch on Oct. 3, 2011, for a few days of vacation at Kill Devil Hills.
It was a chilly fall morning at the Outer Banks on Oct. 5. But to Joey Storie, an avid fisherman, a few hours deep-sea fishing was a perfect way to spend the day. He and Chris braved the ocean spray and wind and headed to the top deck of the “Crystal Dawn,” a 65-foot charter fishing boat based at Nags Head.
The only thing Joey caught that day was a small croaker. Chris said he playfully dangled the fish in front of her nose. That was just the way Joey was.
“He didn’t try to be funny, it just came naturally,” she said. “He always made you smile and laugh. Sure, he played tricks on me and harassed me and my siblings, but that’s what brothers are supposed to do. I hate worms to this day because of Joey.”
Back at the rental house, around 7:30 p.m., the Stories jumped into the Chevrolet Silverado pickup that Travis was driving and headed south on U.S. 158 to go to dinner. Joey Storie rode up front, with Chris and Alicia Storie in the back.
As the Silverado reached Ocean Bay Boulevard, a Chevrolet Lumina suddenly shot across the intersection in front of the pickup, which then slammed into the side of the car, ran over the top of it and rolled over, throwing Chris Storie out the back window. The pickup landed on top of her.
Emergency crews arrived to find Joey Storie dead from major head injuries. They thought Chris was dead but then found a pulse in her ankle. She and Alicia Storie were flown to Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, while Paul Travis was treated at a local hospital and released.
The driver of the Lumina, 44-year-old Luis Alberto Rodriguez, also was injured and was taken to Sentara, where he remained for several days.
Hours after the wreck, Rodriguez had a blood-alcohol content of 0.09 percent, above the 0.08-percent limit at which North Carolina law presumes a driver is impaired. The Kill Devil Hills Police Department charged him with felony death by motor vehicle, two counts of felony serious bodily injury and driving while impaired.
Police planned to arrest Rodriguez, a Honduran whose temporary visa had expired, when he was released from the hospital. But the hospital released Rodriguez without notifying the police, and he fled Dare County. He had been gone two days before police called the hospital to ask when he would be released.
Twelve days later, police tracked Rodriguez’s cellphone and found him in Raleigh. Brought back to Dare County, he was held on $100,000 bond.
When Rodriguez had a court hearing, Chris Storie approached him. She said he wouldn’t look at her or listen to her. He told her, “Talk to my lawyer.”
On Jan. 10, 2012, a judge reduced his bond to $50,000 despite Rodriguez’s expired visa. Chris Storie, who attended that court hearing as well, said Rodriguez’s lawyer argued that he needed to be able to get out of jail to work to support his family and pay his legal fees.
On Jan. 28, a bail bondsman posted Rodriguez’s bond, and he has not been heard from since.
The Dare Community Crime Line has issued a $2,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Rodriguez. The Storie family has offered an additional $1,000.
Chris Storie still suffers a physical toll from her injuries. She had a third-degree concussion and has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She had neck surgery less than two months ago to relieve pressure from a disc that was pressing into her spinal cord, and she has missed almost a year of work at her job with Corning Cable Systems in Hickory.
While the injuries will eventually heal, the pain of losing her brother will stay – as it will for Joey Storie’s two sons: Matthew, 25, and Shane, 23.
“After the crash, my brother and I felt like we had been thrown into an instant nightmare,” Matthew Storie said. “I couldn’t imagine a life without my dad. After we found out about the crash, I called my dad’s phone several times hoping he would answer.
“I didn’t want to believe it. I miss him more and more every day. I still haven’t got a full grip on reality, but I’m getting better as time goes on. I loved him more than life itself and still do.”
The sons were able to be with their father two weeks after the wreck. They, Chris Storie and Alicia Storie boarded “The Crystal Dawn” and headed out into Albemarle Sound, a place where Joey Storie loved to fish, and scattered his ashes.