‘It’s devastating’: Mom recalls phone call with daughter before fatal west Wichita crash
Teresa Dear was on the phone with her daughter, Anastasia Carter, as Carter went to pick up ice from the store the night before Thanksgiving.
“We were just laughing and having fun talking about what we’re going to do for Thanksgiving,” Dear said in an interview. “We couldn’t wait to eat, get full and be lazy.”
But Carter didn’t return with the ice. Her family became concerned and went out to look for her.
“Her cousin said that she was going to go look for her because we were just right up the street” from the store, Dear said. “That’s when she saw the accident.”
Wichita police responded to a vehicle collision shortly after 10 p.m. Wednesday at Ridge Road and Shade Lane, near the intersection of Central and Ridge.
Carter was trapped in her car. After being extracted by the Wichita Fire Department, she was taken to a hospital, where she died hours later, Wichita Police Department spokesperson Juan Rebolledo said in a phone call.
She had been northbound on Ridge when a truck heading south on Ridge made a left turn in front of her. The car and truck collided, Rebolledo said.
The driver of the truck, 30-year-old Dalton Huffman of Wichita, failed to yield before turning and is being accused of driving under the influence, WPD spokesperson Andrew Ford said in an email.
Mother of three
Carter was a 24-year-old mother of three girls: Zy’Ailah, Aiyana and Karizma. She was a stay-at-home mom and had plans to continue her education.
Dear said she was on the phone with her daughter roughly 10 minutes before the accident.
“It’s hard, it’s devastating,” Dear said. “She was with me that night and we were all together.”
Carter had graduated from Chester Lewis Academic Learning Center and wanted to pursue a nursing career.
“She was a sweet, loving girl who loved to do fun things with her kids ... show them life and take them on trips,” Dear said.
Friends and family poured out support for Carter, with several referring to her as “Staya.”
One cousin said: “I didn’t even get to apologize for the small misunderstanding we had last Friday,” a Facebook post read. “I’m so sorry cousin.”
Dear told The Eagle this is the second child that she has lost. Her son had been shot and killed while driving in east Wichita.
A Facebook post showed Carter posing for a photo with her late brother, 23-year-old Jacquez Carter of Wichita, who was killed in September 2021.
The post read: “Ain’t no way heaven needed y’all more than we did. I love y’all.”
Another cousin in a social media post said: “Rest in peace to my cousin, so sorry this happened to you,” the post said. “I love you and I’m going to miss those conversations we had about getting our kids together.”
After the crash, Huffman was taken to a hospital, released and booked into the Sedgwick County Jail on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence, leaving the scene of a fatality collision, driving while on a suspended license, transporting an open container and failing to yield right of way for a left turn, Ford said in an email.
Sedgwick County Jail inmate records show Huffman was booked into jail Thursday at 3:43 a.m. He remained there Tuesday afternoon. Kansas Department of Corrections records show Huffman was convicted of drug possession in 2015 .
A GoFundMe was created by Carter’s family to help pay for funeral expenses and to help support her three daughters.
