HUNTERSVILLE, N.C.,None — On Tuesday, police investigators returned to the scene of a fatal car crash outside of the Movies at Birkdale at Birkdale Commons Parkway to search for clues.
At the scene of the wreck, which happened just before 4 a.m. Sunday, there are flowers and a cross made of stones.
The crash killed 17-year-old Donald McDermott, who was a passenger in the car. The driver of the car, 18-year-old Mark McMahon, survived.
Police said the car struck a tree in front of the Movies at Birkdale at Birkdale Commons Parkway, hit a parked car and then ran into a column on the building.
A local mother told Eyewitness News her daughter saw McMahon and McDermott late Saturday night, just hours before the crash, at a party in Huntersville.
The mother, who didn't want to be identified because of the ongoing investigation into the crash, said her daughter thinks McMahon left the party and was inhaling fumes from an air duster that's used to clean computer keyboards.
"When they huff this substance, they pass out," the mother said. "They lose consciousness for a couple of seconds. They have no idea what they're doing."
Investigators won't confirm or deny if the driver was inhaling anything before the crash happened. They have said only that the driver was somehow impaired.
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McMahon's family also wouldn't say if he was inhaling anything.
The mother, though, said this wasn't the first crash in which McMahon has been involved. She gave Eyewitness News a police report that shows the teenager crashed on Highway 73 in Lincoln County a month ago. Then, police cited him for crossing the center line.
During that crash, the woman's daughter was in the car.
"It scares me to death because there are so many influences out there," the mother said.
McMahon is now out of the hospital, but his family said he is in a different medical facility under suicide watch.
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