Family of bride killed by DUI driver in SC speaks out

(2 May 2023)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Folly Beach, South Carolina - 2 May 2023
1. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
“Her face was just- Lit up like. I have described it just like light coming off her face. She was just so happy and She actually told Aric in the golf cart on their way back to their place where they were staying at the Airbnb where we got ready. She said, I want this night to last all,”
MANDI JENKINS (sister): “forever”
MILLER: “Forever. And that probably was 40 minutes before the drunk driver plowed her down.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
“One of the members of the other family came by and said, ‘Did you hear about the accident? Get in the car.’ And so we got it got in the vehicle with her. And she took us down the street where the scene was, and me and my daughter were running down the street holding hands, screaming Samantha's name. Sam. Sam, where are you? It was. That part was horrible.”
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3. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
“Then my- Sam's dad called me and said that Sam wasn't at the hospital. She was still on the scene and that he had identified her by her tattoo.”
MANDI JENKINS: “That she was gone.”
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4. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
“Just feels like it's a really bad movie. Like it's bad enough to get killed by a drunk driver. But you got killed on your wedding night in your wedding dress and plowed down.”
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5. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
“She doesn't ever want people to be sad or mad like that’s what I'm saying like, Sam doesn't want this to destroy our lives. We know that.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
“After that, the DJ shouts out, ‘Surprise dance for the most important person in the bride's life.’ And that was me. And it was- She did that for me. And that's Sam. Like, I didn't know she planned that whole thing. And we danced to Bruno Mars’ “just the way you are” because that was our song.”
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7. SOUNDBITE (English) Mandi Jenkins, Samantha Miller’s sister:
“In the circumstances that we're in, I don't want to give this person who killed my sister. Because she made a terrible mistake that has changed our lives and a lot of lives forever. So bringing awareness to what drunk driving can really do. We're a real- we're a real family..”
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8. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
++VIDEO AS INCOMING++
“One bad decision just affected so many people, Aric's family, our family, all the people that were at that wedding that I mean, people came from everywhere to go to Sam's wedding because she touched people everywhere she went. Everybody loved Sam.”
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9. SOUNDBITE (English) Lisa Miller, Samantha Miller’s mother:
“Your decision to just, you know, risk it and you're actually risking somebody else's life and you just ruined, I don't know, how many people's lives, you know, this girl just impacted so many people.”
++BLACK FRAMES++
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Mandi Jenkins, Samantha Miller’s sister:
“If we can save one other family from going through what we're going through. I have two daughters now, my mom's first grandchildren, and I couldn't imagine. So it's hitting me harder because I know what she's feeling, because I would not want to be here if something happened to my kids.”
++ENDS ON SOUNDBITE++
STORYLINE:




“Sam doesn’t want this to destroy our lives," Lisa Miller said. "We know that.”





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