It was a quiet stretch of road in Augusta, the kind drivers pass without a second thought. But along Riverwatch Parkway, just past mile marker 2 near Goodrich Street, a tragic scene sat hidden for nearly two days before anyone noticed.
Authorities say the crash likely happened on Saturday, April 18. No one reported it at the time. It wasn’t until Monday evening, April 20, that officials with the Richmond County Coroner’s Office arrived and made the grim discovery. A single vehicle had veered off the westbound side of the parkway, down an embankment, out of plain sight.
Inside and around that wreckage were two young lives cut short. Devon Briggs, 23, from Buena Vista, Georgia, and Evelyn Plakal, 22, from Elgin, South Carolina, were both found at the scene. By the time help reached them, it was already too late. They were pronounced dead just after 6 p.m.
Investigators believe speed played a major role. The car was moving fast as it approached a curve. At some point, it drifted off the north shoulder, slammed into a guardrail, and flipped over. The impact was violent enough to eject Briggs from the vehicle, leaving him outside the wreck. Plakal remained inside, trapped within what was left of the car.
For families and friends, the hardest part may be the time lost. For nearly 48 hours, the wreck went unnoticed, hidden below the roadway where passing drivers couldn’t see it. That delay only deepens the heartbreak, turning what was already a devastating crash into something even more painful to process.
Law enforcement officials with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office are still working alongside the coroner to piece together exactly what happened in those final moments. They are looking at all factors, but early findings point strongly to excessive speed as the key cause.
On a road that usually carries people home, this crash left behind silence, questions, and two grieving communities now forced to come to terms with a sudden loss that went unseen for far too long.
