Police in Florida are saying they cannot substantiate claims by Megan Markle’s half-sister that she was the victim of a paparazzi-caused car accident.
Samantha Grant had claimed to have suffered a broken ankle in the accident and tweeted out a picture of herself at the hospital. Her boyfriend Mark Phillips had told TMZ that a “paparazzi confrontation” had caused their car to swerve into a concrete barrier.
The account sounded eerily like the 1997 Paris accident that killed Princess Diana, the mother of Britain’s Price Harry, who will marry Ms. Markle this weekend.
But Florida police are scratching their heads. According to Fox News, police in Florida say they have no knowledge of an incident that matches the details in the TMZ report.
People are legally required to report any accident that results in damage to person or property, as the accident described by Ms. Grant would. Failure to report is 2nd degree misdemeanor that could result in a 60-day jail sentence.
Both Lt. Kim Montes, a spokeswoman for Florida Highway Patrol Troop D, and Michelle Guido, spokeswoman for the Orlando Police Department, told Fox News they could not substantiate the TMZ report.
Lt. Montes said her office checked five different troops between Tampa and Jacksonville and came up with nothing.
“We looked for three hours last night. She lives in Ocala but there’s no toll roads in Ocala. The nearest toll road would be the turnpike so we checked the turnpike, we checked I-4, we checked all these other roads. We checked by her name, we checked by his name and we didn’t find any reports. So we don’t know if this actually happened,” Lt. Montes said.
• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.
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