New Jersey

Driver in Jersey City Crash Mystery Surrenders: Prosecutors

What to Know

  • A car crashed on Newark Avenue in Jersey City around 3 a.m. Sunday
  • When police arrived they found a woman's body in the backseat and the driver missing
  • Prosecutors say the driver of the vehicle turned herself in on Sunday

The driver of a car that was found abandoned and destroyed with a dead woman in the backseat has turned herself in, authorities said. 

Khadija Hamilton, 27, was with her attorney when she surrendered to police on Sunday afternoon, according to the Hudson County Prosecutor's Office. 

Authorities had been searching for the driver of a Honda Accord after it smashed into a guardrail early Saturday morning in Jersey City.

Responding officers discovered the body of 24-year-old Khalla Nguyen in the backseat of the smashed vehicle. The driver, however, was nowhere to be found. 

Authorities were originally not sure if Nguyen was killed in the crash or if she had died before it, and investigators from the Hudson County Regional Fatal Collision Unit were seen searching for clues near Newark Avenue and Seventh Street on Saturday.

On Sunday, prosecutors said Nguyen was a victim of the crash. 

Hamilton was charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, death by auto, and driving unlicensed and causing death.

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