The only consolation the family may have at this dark time is that Wiseman is still alive thanks to the selfless acts of a young Cadiz man named Seth Hooks.
In an interview with The Cadiz Record, Hooks, 21, described the horrific events he witnessed on Dec. 12. He said that when he, his girlfriend, Ashley Pepper, his sister, Charlie Hooks, and his and Pepper’s baby daughter, Chloe, arrived at the scene of the accident, they could not tell what was happening. They saw people running down the hill toward Austin’s Ford, which was overturned and on fire.
Hooks saw a damaged 2004 Lincoln by the side of the road before he saw any other car, he said. Austin had collided with the Lincoln, driven by Sheila Holland, before running off the road. Before Hooks saw Austin’s car, he thought everyone was reacting to nothing more than a grass fire. Once they got closer, Hooks could see Sabrina and two of her sons, two-year-old John Wesley Austin and Braydon Dakota Austin, outside of the car.
Hooks said that he saw Sabrina trying to make her way back to the burning car, but someone was trying to keep her from getting closer to the vehicle. Realizing that someone else was inside the vehicle, Hooks ran over and helped pull Sabrina out of the way. He then went to the car and tried to pull Hunter out.
“I tried to pull and pull on Hunter and couldn’t get him out because he was lodged in there,” Hooks said. “His seatbelt was wrapped around him and I didn’t know it. All I could see was his face through the smoke and fire, so I tried to scream for somebody to give me a knife to cut him out, and nobody could give me anything to get him out right away.
Read more about the story in this week's Cadiz Record.
