Woman killed in crash had ‘everything going right’

Delisia Carter was finally living the life she deserved, friends and family say.

Last summer the 38-year-old inspirational speaker married her second husband, Robert Carter, 39. In February, Carter gave birth to their first child, Ethan Blake.

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Delisia Carter died in the Easter crash on Camp Creek Parkway.

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“It was a very good time for her,” said Carolyn Robertson, Delisia Carter’s stepmother. “Everything was going right.”

On Easter the new family, which included Delisia Carter’s 9-year-old daughter, Kayla, from a previous marriage, went out for a Sunday drive, not far from their south Fulton home. At about 1:45 p.m. Robert Carter’s Mercedes and a BMW collided on Camp Creek Parkway between Butner and Old Fairburn roads, police say. That wreck started a chain reaction of accidents that ended with five people dead.

The Carters, their daughter and newborn son were all killed in the crash, as was a 6-year-old girl riding in another car. After colliding with the BMW, the Carters’ Mercedes spun out of control and hit a Volkswagen, driven by Tracy Johnson, 43, of Atlanta. Johnson survived the accident, but the impact killed her 6-year-old daughter, whose name was not released by Fulton County police.

As the Carters’ vehicle clipped at least two other vehicles before catching fire, the BMW sped away, said Fulton County police spokeswoman Melissa Parker.

Police are still searching for the driver of a light-colored, possibly champagne, 1995-2001 BMW. Parker said it would most likely be leaking fluids and would have significant undercarriage and driver-side damage. Investigators suspect the car was driven by a woman who lives in the area.

Meanwhile, Delisia Carter’s family and friends are trying to understand why the bubbly people-pleaser was taken from them — especially at this time in her life.

Carter used her struggles to instruct others. She wrote and lectured on how she rose above abuse she suffered from her father and first husband, according to her Web site. After her first marriage ended, Carter was briefly homeless.

“I never knew about all that until I read her book,” said longtime friend Tracie Cumbee, 36, Carter’s roommate at California State University. “She was always optimistic.”

Carter, who grew up in Hayward, in the Bay Area of Northern California, always talked about moving to Atlanta, Cumbee said.

“She had read how it was a good place for black women to succeed,” her friend said. “Then one day she just packed up and moved down there.”

A little more than a year ago she was invited to a party at Robert Carter’s home. That night she told friends she had met her second husband.

Soon after their nuptials, Carter visited her old college roommate in Hayward.

“This (the marriage) was the highlight of her life,” Cumbee said. “She was overjoyed.”

Anyone with information about the accident is asked to call 404-612-5314.