Found Deceased NC - Stephanie Mayorga, 27, & Paige Escalera, 25, Wilmington, 15 Apr 2020

[leonm]

Not that it really matters, I know, but I'm kind of curious at what time they ordered their food.
Before they went out to get some snacks/beers? or from the car on their way home from the convenience store?
Why didn't they return to the apartment right away.

Did they have to "kill some time" waiting for their food delivery and that's why they decided to drive around after their visit to the store. Since they were at the store at 10:49 p.m and the crash happened about one hour later, 6.5 miles from their apartment.

 

[Lusitana]

"added to the many videos of them driving while drinking alcohol"

Where do you find these? sorry if I missed it

Steph & Paige
Stephanie Nicole
The Paige master

 

[TDoc72]

I liked that press conference. They summed everything up and the visuals made it easy to understand what happened.
I won’t say that they deserved what happened to them but drinking & driving (especially w/priors) is incredibly stupid. I’m glad no one else got hurt.
IMO case closed.

 

[bellesnwhistles]

Not that it really matters, I know, but I'm kind of curious at what time they ordered their food.
Before they went out to get some snacks/beers? or from the car on their way home from the convenience store?
Why didn't they return to the apartment right away.

Did they have to "kill some time" waiting for their food delivery and that's why they decided to drive around after their visit to the store. Since they were at the store at 10:49 p.m and the crash happened about one hour later, 6.5 miles from their apartment.

I wondered that, too

 

[Teeena]

Not that it really matters, I know, but I'm kind of curious at what time they ordered their food.
Before they went out to get some snacks/beers? or from the car on their way home from the convenience store?
Why didn't they return to the apartment right away.

Did they have to "kill some time" waiting for their food delivery and that's why they decided to drive around after their visit to the store. Since they were at the store at 10:49 p.m and the crash happened about one hour later, 6.5 miles from their apartment.

I keep thinking about this personally

 

[Lusitana]

I liked that press conference. They summed everything up and the visuals made it easy to understand what happened.
I won’t say that they deserved what happened to them but drinking & driving (especially w/priors) is incredibly stupid. I’m glad no one else got hurt.
IMO case closed.

I totally get what you're saying. This didn't have to happen.

 

[kelsie]

This is so frustrating and could've been easily prevented. Some people think they're invincible. I feel for Steph and Paige and their families, but I HATE drunk driving and will never understand people who drink & speed like that. It's so reckless. I've literally called the cops on my friends who drink and drive and post it on their Snapchat stories. Your reaction time is always, always affected no matter how much you think it isn't.

 

[borndem]

Just saw this -- please forgive if it's a repeat --

Missing N.C. Couple Were Driving at 103 Mph at Time of Fatal Crash: Police
Stephanie Mayorga, 27, and Paige Escalera, 25, died of traumatic head and chest injuries sustained in the alcohol-fueled crash
By Harriet Sokmensuer --May 18, 2020 01:19 PM

The missing North Carolina couple found dead in their car off the side of a road were speeding and intoxicated before they crashed, police say.

On May 4, a grey 2013 Dodge Dart belonging to Stephanie Mayorga, 27, and Paige Escalera, 25, was found "deep in the woods off the intersection of Independence Blvd. and River Road," according to a statement released by the Wilmington Police Department. Inside the vehicle were the couple's decomposing bodies.
[...]
"Data from the car’s computer shows the driver hit the brake at the same moment the vehicle struck the curb, which explains the lack of skid marks," the news release states. "The car battery broke in half on impact, shutting off any lights or sounds that could have alerted first responders to the crash. In addition, thick vegetation at the back of the car fully covered the taillights and prevented any reflection under a searchlight."

More here:
Missing N.C. Couple Were Driving at 103 Mph at Time of Fatal Crash: Police

 

[borndem]

After watching the Gray Hughes video, I don't think it was intentional at all. It looks like she didn't realize the turn was coming up and by the time she hit the curb there was nothing she could do. I think if you wanted to do a suicide, you'd jump off a bridge together or drive off a cliff or into a lake. This particular place wouldn't guarantee death. Here are screencaps:

You can see how she clearly just blew through the stopsign and missed the turn. You can also see the lack of good lighting on this intersection.
View attachment 246289

Closeup. Red line is the car trajectory
View attachment 246290

Here you can barely see the car's path over the curb and into the trees from bottom center to top right.
View attachment 246291
The path from bottom right was made by vehicles pulling the car out where it landed in the dark area in front of the tree at top right. It likely hit and bounced backwards to the left.
View attachment 246292
You can see where they hit a low wet area first (car path on left pointing to top right, LE path from bottom right to top)
View attachment 246293

Crash site:
View attachment 246294

Absolutely amazing photos -- BIG thanks, @Vail!

I, too, do not think that this crash was intentional -- they were probably talking, having a good time, not noticing how fast they were going, and then things happened in the blink of an eye. So, so sad.

 

[Dawookie]

I just can't understand why two people who had DUI charges, had several empty beer bottles in the car. That, added to the many videos of them driving while drinking alcohol, bothers me so much. They could've really hurt or kill someone else. I hate to say this, but this outcome was bound to happen. It's a shame that two young people had to lose their lives in such a stupid way.
Why were they driving so fast? They had to know that if they were pulled over they would be in big trouble, with all of those bottles in the car and the previous DUI charges... so weird.

Some people just don't care about the consequences of their actions for a variety of reasons.

 

[Lusitana]

Some people just don't care about the consequences of their actions for a variety of reasons.

Well, clearly.

 

[moonriverfarm]

WHAT WALL did they hit???

 

[MajorHoople]

WHAT WALL did they hit???

The truck driver who reported the accident was mistaken. He thought they hit a wall, but they really hit the concrete curb.

 

[Gardenista]

UPDATE: Family of deceased North Carolina couple demand answers

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=289226912078052

 

[AVerySunshiny]

Steph & Paige
Stephanie Nicole
The Paige master

Hello everyone, Wilmington resident here. I haven't been to the crash site. I looked at Instagram "The Paige Master" from the above link and it is subtitled "Triplexhardcore".

I googled "triplexhardcore" and it returned a web page titled "25 and Ready To Die". Paige was 25 and she had this Instagram:
Entering my quarter life crisis.
Its going to be a fast ride.

Was this suicide?

 

[AVerySunshiny]

Hello everyone, Wilmington resident here. I haven't been to the crash site. I looked at Instagram "The Paige Master" from the above link and it is subtitled "Triplexhardcore".

I googled "triplexhardcore" and it returned a web page titled "25 and Ready To Die". Paige was 25 and she had this Instagram:
Entering my quarter life crisis.
Its going to be a fast ride.

Was this suicide?

Here is the web page (tumblr) address that I left out that belongs to Paige Escalara subtitled "25 And Ready To Die".
25 and ready to die

If I were the police, I'd be very, very curious about a suicide angle.

 

[Vail]

Here is the web page (tumblr) address that I left out that belongs to Paige Escalara subtitled "25 And Ready To Die".
25 and ready to die

If I were the police, I'd be very, very curious about a suicide angle.

That does appear to be Paige's tumblr, but the posts stop in January and she started dating Stephanie since and seems to have moved her activity to instagram. In my opinion, Paige may have been experiencing the depression and disenfranchisement that comes with being in college and your mid 20s and being gay. Gay women have a harder time finding good relationships or any hookups at all for that matter than their male counterparts. Other than the unfriending, everything we know points to these two being madly in love and happy.
They were going 103 on a long straight. I can actually picture Stephanie, who was known to drink and drive fast, hitting the accelerator, turning up the music and careening down the straightaway in the dark having a great time. Until things went wrong and she misjudged. The slight delay on hitting the break is exactly the reason alcohol and driving don't mix (and marijuana and whatever else might have been going on) - why break if you're trying to kill yourself? This is also a terrible spot for suicide - there is no way they could have predicted they would hit a tree or even known that tree existed for that matter. Google maps offers several other more romantic spots for leaving the earth together.

 

[AVerySunshiny]

That does appear to be Paige's tumblr, but the posts stop in January and she started dating Stephanie since and seems to have moved her activity to instagram. In my opinion, Paige may have been experiencing the depression and disenfranchisement that comes with being in college and your mid 20s and being gay. Gay women have a harder time finding good relationships or any hookups at all for that matter than their male counterparts. Other than the unfriending, everything we know points to these two being madly in love and happy.
They were going 103 on a long straight. I can actually picture Stephanie, who was known to drink and drive fast, hitting the accelerator, turning up the music and careening down the straightaway in the dark having a great time. Until things went wrong and she misjudged. The slight delay on hitting the break is exactly the reason alcohol and driving don't mix (and marijuana and whatever else might have been going on) - why break if you're trying to kill yourself? This is also a terrible spot for suicide - there is no way they could have predicted they would hit a tree or even known that tree existed for that matter. Google maps offers several other more romantic spots for leaving the earth together.

People with long term depression put on a good show, but it's there simmering away unless they are in good steady treatment program and not drinking. Unfortunately I dealt with this first hand for a decade and now 11 years later and 1200 miles away, they still try to drag me into their life via suicide threats. One drunk fight with a new partner and it all comes rushing out.

I'm not saying that anyone committed suicide in this case, but when I see posts like she had on Tumblr, they need professional help and to not drink, period, because that thought is never far away. Not doing so results in a tragedy such as this far too often.

Please, if anyone needs help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline 1-800-273-TALK (8255)

 

[carbuff]

I'd certainly be considering that option under different circumstances, but I'd think if you were planning to kill yourself in a car, you'd want to go off a cliff, into a river, into a solid obstacle. Something guaranteed to kill you, not run the risk of being crippled for life.

 

[Lusitana]

This case is very odd to me. I really don't see what most people seem to see with Stephanie and Paige being "madly" in love. The lovey-dovey stuff always rubs me the wrong way. The way they wrote captions and comments doesn't seem to match the way they acted on those videos. Maybe it's just their personality, I don't know. Some details in this case do make me thing that maybe their relationship wasn't as good as they may have wanted to make it seem. It's possible that the goal wasn't really a murder-suicide and things just got out of control during a fight, who knows. I just don't believe this was 100% an accident.