MARTIN COUNTY − A driver accused of fatally striking a cyclist and apparently dragging or carrying the bicycle with her BMW nearly back to her listed residence, had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in her system hours after the crash, according to an arrest affidavit.
“I killed someone,” Elise Victoria Elder, 23, is quoted as saying about two hours after the Friday crash that killed a man identified by family as Martin Drummond, 67, of Sewall’s Point.
Investigators reported he was struck about 6:42 a.m. on the Evans Crary Bridge linking Stuart and Sewall’s Point.
These and other details were in Elder’s arrest affidavit, which was released Monday. Elder, of the 100 block of South Sewall's Point Road in Sewall’s Point, was arrested Friday afternoon by the Florida Highway Patrol on charges including DUI causing death to a human or unborn child; and failure to stop and remain at a crash involving a death.
After getting to the scene, an FHP trooper was told by Martin County sheriff’s officials that the vehicle suspected in the crash was at a home in the 100 block of South Sewall's Point Road. The bicycle was found at 95 South Sewall's Point Road, records show.
“It appeared that the bicycle, post-collision with the suspect vehicle, had been carried from the initial scene on the exterior of (Elder’s four-door BMW) and was deposited on the west shoulder of the roadway near 95 South Sewall's Point Road,” an affidavit states.
A witness told investigators that he and what he described as a navy blue BMW were traveling east on Southeast Ocean Boulevard from Southeast Monterey Road, which is west of the crash scene. The blue BMW, which investigators accuse Elder of driving, started to pass the witness “at a high rate of speed,” records show.
As the witness approached the crest of the bridge, he saw a debris field in front of the BMW. The witness said the BMW continued east, and did not stop after the crash. He estimated the BMW was traveling about 90 mph, and described the driver as a woman in her mid 20s with blonde hair.
The witness identified Elder when an FHP sergeant drove him by the residence.
Two breath tests about 12:45 p.m. — about six hours after the crash — measured Elder’s blood-alcohol content at 0.225 and 0.212, which is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.
"He was a rare gem," Lori Drummond, Martin Drummond’s wife of 18 years, said Saturday. "He cared deeply about people and wanted them to know how much he cared."
Drummond was a pastor and Realtor as well as a journalist. He worked at The Stuart News from 1998 to 2001 as the business editor and was the publisher of River Living magazine at the time of his death.
He was born in Bloomington, Indiana, and moved to the Treasure Coast when he was about 18, according to his wife. He was a father to two children, three stepchildren and had 12 grandchildren.
He and his wife would hold virtual Bible study on Facebook Live every Thursday.
Elder was released on $150,000 bond from the Martin County Jail, a jail official said Monday.
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Will Greenlee is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm. Follow Will on X @OffTheBeatTweet or reach him by phone at 772-267-7926. E-mail him at will.greenlee@tcpalm.com.
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