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Cops: Drunk Driver Killed Bride Still in Wedding Dress

Suspect was driving south in northbound lanes
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 9, 2021 1:09 PM CDT
Newlywed Bride Killed in Wrong-Way Crash
Authorities released this photo of Gonzalez-Rea's vehicle. His passenger fled on foot but later returned to the scene.   (Utah Department of Public Safety)

Relatives say Friday was supposed to be one of the happiest days of Angelica Dhondup's life. It ended up being the last. The 26-year-old bride was killed in a wrong-way crash on I-15 near Salt Lake City hours after she married her high school sweetheart, Fox reports. Prosecutors say Dhondup's Toyota Corolla was hit head-on by Manaure Gonzalez-Rea's Toyota pickup as he traveled south in the northbound lanes around 1am Saturday. According to court documents, Gonzalez-Rea's truck flipped in the collision and he stole a truck belonging to a witness who had stopped to help, reports Gephardt Daily. He was arrested a few miles away and a breathalyzer test found that he had been drinking.

Gonzalez-Rea, 36, faces charges including automobile homicide, DUI, and theft, prosecutors said in a statement. Police said he suffered only minor injuries in the crash. Friends tell KSL that Dhondup, who died in her wedding dress, was on her way back to her wedding reception after dropping off gifts at her nearby home. A 20-year-old cousin in the vehicle had non-life-threatening injuries. "She hadn’t even been married a full 24 hours and is leaving behind a widowed husband 2 young handsome sons and a daughter she was a week away from adopting," relatives said in a GoFundMe fundraiser for funeral costs. "This has been so unreal," relatives said, adding: "Don't drink drive." (More Utah stories.)

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