VA Woman D’nessa Mercado ID’d As Victim Killed Saturday After Exiting Vehicle While On I-77

WEST VIRGINIA. (THECOUNT) — D’nessa Mercado of Norfolk, VA, has been identified as the victim killed after exiting a vehicle on Interstate-77 Saturday morning.

West Virginia State Police say a domestic dispute led to Mercado, (whose age was not provided,) exiting a vehicle, driven by her husband, Bryan Mercado, and subsequently getting struck by an 18-wheeler Saturday morning around 3 a.m.

Mercado and her husband, (who was on the phone with 911,) were traveling in a vehicle northbound on the West Virginia Turnpike when the driver pulled to the shoulder and a female passenger exited the vehicle.

D’nessa was reportedly striking her husband, who was then forced to pull over to the shoulder area of I-77.

D’nessa then exited the vehicle, walked into the northbound lane of travel and was fatally struck by a tractor trailer.

An audio recording of events was obtained due to the fact that Bryan Mercado was on the phone with dispatch at the time of the incident. source

The investigation is ongoing.

No criminal charges are being filed at this time. No one was cited at the scene.

Anyone with possible information on the fatal incident should contact police at 911.

Norfolk is a waterfront city in southeastern Virginia. It’s home to Naval Station Norfolk, a massive naval base on Chesapeake Bay. Nauticus is a maritime museum that features the Battleship Wisconsin, a huge WWII warship. The Chrysler Museum of Art showcases a vast collection of glass art, plus European and American paintings and sculpture. The riverside Virginia Zoo is home to bears, birds, lions and farm animals, according to wikipedia.