This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2004, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
MARIETTA, Ga. - A drunken driver ran off the road and sideswiped a telephone-pole support wire, decapitating his best friend, who was hanging out the passenger window, police said.
John Kemper Hutcherson, 21, then drove 12 miles back to his suburban Atlanta home early Sunday and went to sleep in his bloody clothes, leaving the headless body in the truck, police said.
A neighbor walking with his baby daughter Sunday discovered 23-year-old Francis Daniel Brohm's headless corpse in the parked truck and called authorities.
Hutcherson was jailed Monday on $100,000 bail.
Police said Hutcherson and Brohm - best friends since high school - were drinking at a bar Saturday night and left after Brohm said he felt sick.
Brohm had been hanging his head out the window when Hutcherson swerved off the road. Police do not know how fast Hutcherson was driving when he hit the nearly vertical support wire.