Street racing cited as two charged in Frederick County teen girl’s death

The 21-year-old brother of a 17-year-old girl killed when his car wrecked in Frederick County at high speed on August 8, has been charged along with a 26-year-old Berryville man, for illegal street racing leading to the accident that killed Sarah Michelle Ehrhardt. On Thursday, September 9, a Frederick County Grand Jury indicted Nicholas Isaiah Ehrhardt and Christopher Troy Colter on charges of Racing and Reckless Driving Causing Death. Colter was also charged with leaving the scene of the accident.

While Ehrhardt was booked shortly after the indictments were handed down, it was reported by Winchester media and on social media that the Berryville-based Colter was still being sought by authorities as the weekend approached. An early-afternoon check of the Northwestern Regional Adult Detention Center website Monday, September 13, indicated Colter was booked earlier that day.

Above, photo from Winchester-based Nicholas Ehrhardt’s social media page; below, Christopher Troy Colter from NWRADC Inmate Locator search on Sept. 13. – Photos Social Media, NWRADC

Sarah Ehrhardt was a passenger in the rear seat of a Ford hatchback driven by her brother when it left State Route 7 (Berryville Pike) at high speed eastbound at 3:25 p.m. August 8. The violence of the vehicle’s crash into a fence, metal grocery store signpost, and parked vehicle tore the vehicle in half, with the rear section containing Sarah Ehrhardt coming to rest an estimated 90 feet from the front section of the car. Sarah Ehrhardt died at the scene. Her brother and his 18-year-old girlfriend, Magdelyn Germain, were both seated in the front of the vehicle. Germain was thrown from the vehicle during the accident when her seat belt system failed. She was flown to the trauma center at INOVA Fairfax Hospital where she was treated for serious, possibly life-threatening injuries, but survived. Nicholas Ehrhardt was transported to Winchester Medical Center where he was treated, and released, for minor injuries sustained in the crash.

That witness accounts and the crash scene investigation suggested the potential of racing may have been indicated by law enforcement immediately seeking help from the public in identifying a second vehicle and driver believed to have been involved in the accident. As Frederick County law enforcement reported at the time: “Speed has been determined to have been a factor in this crash and the incident remains under investigation looking into the presence of other possible factors contributing to the cause.”

Street racing is now believed to have been identified as that other contributing factor.

Social Media page post of a Berryville-based Christopher Troy Colter with numerous expressions of affection for fast cars.

At the time of the accident, Frederick County law enforcement sought dash-camera footage from anyone in the vicinity of the crash, which was described as follows:

“At approximately 3:20 p.m. Nicholas was in the left lane of Route 7 coming around a bend, at a very high rate of speed, when his vehicle dipped off the left edge of the roadway and onto the gravel shoulder. From there, Ehrhardt came back up onto the pavement, where he lost control and came sliding back across both eastbound lanes and off the right shoulder of the roadway. The vehicle next made significant impacts with a fence, a business sign (on a metal post), and a parked vehicle, with the body and frame of the Ford separating into two pieces. During the course of the crash events, Germain was ejected out onto the roadway after a catastrophic failure of the seat belt system and was subsequently flown to the trauma center at INOVA Fairfax Hospital where she was treated for serious, possibly life-threatening injuries, but expected to survive. Nicholas Ehrhardt was transported to Winchester Medical Center where he was treated, and released, for minor injuries sustained after the crash.”

As noted above, Sarah Michelle Ehrhardt was pronounced dead at the scene. In an obituary posted on the Omps Funeral Home website she was described as “an avid reader” who could spend hours in her favorite used book store, who also “loved spending time writing stories, snuggling with her dogs and laughing with friends and family”. She was also cited as “a rising senior at Eukarya Christian Academy in Stephens City” who was very involved with “the Media Ministry” at her church, the Winchester Church of God.

Omps Funeral Home’s celebration of the life of Sarah Michelle Ehrhardt remains accessible online.