159 - The I-40 Hit-and-Run Murder

Trace Evidence

Steven Pacheco

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.7 • 4.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2021

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Four high school friends decide to a Friday afternoon doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Kenneth Dungee, Levern Allen III, Darius Bannerman and Kenneth Newkirk were excited about the 90 minute trip, never imagining that only three of them would make it home.

Driving along I-40, an unknown man emerged in a blue, Monte Carlo. After aggressively tailgating the teens, he began ramming their car. A fun outing quickly became a nightmarish fight for survival until, finally, the assailant succeeded in forcing them off the road where the car flipped down an embankment.

Kenneth Dungee was dead and Levern Allen had his leg amputated while Darius Bannerman and Kenneth Newkirk survived with minor injuries. The killer then stopped, surveying the carnage, before speeding off into the unknown.

Had this been a random incident of road rage gone out of control or was the white assailant driven by racism as he targeted the four black teens?

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Sources: https://www.trace-evidence.com/i40

Transcript

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0:00.0	2 Days Before Christmas in 1988, four teenagers set off from Greensboro to Raleigh to
0:15.3	squeeze in some last-minute shopping.
0:18.1	Their path would take them along Interstate 40, 90 minutes through the heart of North
0:22.5	Carolina.
0:23.5	Yet, what was meant to be a fun outing would instead become a scene straight out of a
0:27.5	horror movie, and only three of them would make it home alive.
0:32.4	Kenneth Dungee, Darius Bannerman, Leverne Allen and Kenneth New Kirk were good friends
0:37.5	looking for a little fun on a Friday afternoon.
0:41.0	Sailing down I-40, the group soon found themselves the targets of a senseless and violent attack
0:46.3	when an unknown man appeared behind them.
0:49.2	Terrorizing the teens, the driver started with tailgating but soon grew violent, slamming
0:54.7	into their bumper, eventually forcing them off the road where their cars spun and flipped
0:59.6	down a steep embankment.
1:02.1	As witnesses brushed to help, the assailant pulled to the side of the road and surveyed
1:06.4	the carnage he had wrought before speeding off into the fading afternoon light.
1:11.9	In a matter of seconds, three lives were forever changed and one was extinguished.
1:17.9	Had this been a random incident, road rage out of control, or could this have been a racially
1:23.3	motivated attack carried out by a killer who wouldn't stop until he'd spilled blood?
1:30.2	This is Trace Evidence, Episode 159, the I-40 Hit and Run Murder.
1:45.4	Welcome to Trace Evidence.
1:47.0	I'm your host, Stephen Pacheco.
1:49.8	Today we examine a tragic story of four friends who found themselves the targets of a vicious
	...

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