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Man charged with fleeing fatal crash into icy Delaware River

A 24-year-old man was charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident after a car he was driving Sunday afternoon plunged into the icy Delaware River in Burlington City, killing a 23-year-old woman who was trapped inside.

Ice covers Hopkins Pond in Haddonfield earlier this month.
Ice covers Hopkins Pond in Haddonfield earlier this month.Read moreJOSE MORENO / Staff Photographer

A 24-year-old man has been charged with fleeing a fatal accident after a car he was driving Sunday afternoon plunged into the icy Delaware River in Burlington City, killing a 23-year-old woman who was trapped inside.

Emergency responders found Stephanie White, of Burlington City, still strapped by seat belt in the passenger seat of the car, which had broken through the ice near Wood Street just before 1 p.m. White was taken to Lourdes Medical Center of Burlington County in Willingboro, where she was pronounced dead.

Investigators alleged that Jacob T. Garrett, of Burlington City, was driving at a high rate of speed on Riverbank Road when his car struck a parked minivan and then lunged over a river wall into the water.

Witnesses told police that Garrett escaped from the vehicle and pleaded, "help my girlfriend," before he fled.

Garrett was tracked by a K-9 police dog to a River Line train platform. Police then stopped a train at the Beverly/Edgewater Park station and arrested Garrett, who was being held at the Burlington County Jail awaiting a court appearance.