On a warm Sunday afternoon last March, Shelby, 18, was driving three of her closest friends back home from South Padre Island, a popular resort town located just off Texas’s southernmost tip. It was the end of their spring break vacation, and the girls were soaking up every last second together before returning home.
Maybe they had the music turned up high, singing along.
Maybe Jade, 17, was talking to her older sister, Brianna, about how psyched she was to play college volleyball next year.
Or maybe all three of the passengers, exhausted from all the sun and staying up late, were fast asleep while Shelby navigated her way back to the Houston suburbs alone.
Sadly, we may never know what these friends were doing as they rolled along Highway 77 near Corpus Christi, Texas, but what police were able to piece together is that Shelby took her eyes off the road, for just a moment, to check her phone’s GPS.
And that seemingly harmless split-second decision landed her in critical condition—while killing all three of her friends.