Woman Charged With Fleeing Scene Of Hit & Run That Seriously Injured Toddler

Wasn’t Driving When Wreck Occurred But Fled Scene In Vehicle Involved In Accident, Highway Patrol Says

By Robert Jordan
Daily Record of Dunn

HARNETT COUNTY – An Aug. 1, 2024 accident in Harnett County that seriously injured a toddler ended with an Erwin woman in handcuffs in Clayton on Wednesday, March 12.

Ashley Nicole Moore, 38, of 108 Holmes St., Erwin, is charged with felony hit and run, causing serious injury, resisting a public officer, driving with a revoked license and failing to report an accident. Moore wasn’t driving when the wreck occurred Aug. 1, but she drove away from the scene and played a game of hide and seek with officers that led to more charges, according to the State Highway Patrol.

Moore’s “prize” for winning the hiding game Aug. 1 came with a pair of handcuffs on March 12 and a $100,000 secured bond.

“This entire situation could have been avoided, if Ms. Moore had simply come to the door and accepted her citation for leaving the scene,” said N.C. State Highway Patrol Trooper Thomas C. High.

High was dispatched to the parking lot of the Harnett Mini Aero Club on Red Hill Church Road for the crash on Aug. 1. The father told High he stopped in the parking lot to attend to his toddler, who was throwing a tantrum from the restraints of a child seat. While the father addressed the unruly child another vehicle backed into them, pinning the father and the child against the left rear door of their vehicle.

The toddler was taken to a hospital with severe injuries, but survived.

The male driver of the SUV that backed into the father and toddler was at the scene. But the car he was driving was not.

The driver reportedly told the trooper that Moore, who had been riding in the front passenger seat, crawled under the wheel and drove the SUV across a ditch, fleeing the scene before Trooper High arrived.

The man showed High where Moore lived and Trooper High said he noticed the black SUV from the crash behind the home when he went to the door.

Trooper High said he could hear a woman inside the home as he continued to knock on the door, but an “uncooperative male answered the door knock.”

The trooper explained why he was there and that he needed to speak to the woman, but the man refused to have her come to the door, High said.

High impounded the SUV and said that Moore could face more charges if she didn’t come to the door, but she remained out of sight until that warrant for her arrest, approved on Aug. 1, caught the sight of Clayton Police on March 12.

Moore made her first appearance in Harnett County District Court on March 12. Judge Travis N. Wheeler kept her bond the same and appointed attorney Daniel Moose to serve as her defense counsel. Her next court appearance is a probable cause hearing set for March 25.