Beer cans found in Cherokee crash that killed baby's parents

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By Alexis Stevens

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Speed was not factor in a crash that killed a Texas couple and seriously injured their 2-month-old baby, police said Monday. But Cherokee County investigators have not yet determined if alcohol was.

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Jimmy Sedtal holds his newborn nephew, Dakota, while his own daughters are beside him. Dakota, 2-months-old, was in stable condition Monday, one day after his parents died in a wreck on Feb. 5, 2012.

Family photo, Family photo Jimmy Sedtal holds his newborn nephew, Dakota, while his own daughters are beside him. Dakota, 2-months-old, was in stable condition Monday, one day after his parents died in a wreck on Feb. 5, 2012.

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Charlotte Sedtal, shown with her brother Jimmy, died Sunday morning in a two-vehicle crash in Cherokee County. Her boyfriend was also killed, but the couple's 2-month-old son survived.

Family photo, Family photo Charlotte Sedtal, shown with her brother Jimmy, died Sunday morning in a two-vehicle crash in Cherokee County. Her boyfriend was also killed, but the couple's 2-month-old son survived.

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Beer cans were found in the car, and toxicology reports are pending to determine if the father, Rick Dean Headen, was driving under the influence at the time of crash, Lt. Jay Baker, spokesman for the Cherokee Sheriff's Office, told the AJC.

Headen also was driving on a suspended license, Baker said.

Headen, 48, and Charlotte Ann Sedtal, 40, died in the crash on Knox Bridge Highway shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday, police said. The couple's baby, Dakota, sustained a broken leg and head injury in the crash.

The child's condition was upgraded Monday to stable from critical, and he has not required surgery, Baker said.

Headen was driving a Ford Focus that crossed the center line and hit a pickup truck head-on, Baker said. Two people in the truck were taken to the hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

"My sister had called my mama about 30 to 45 minutes before the wreck," Sedtal's brother, Jimmy Sedtal, told the AJC. "She told my mama, ‘I just called to say I love you.'”

The next phone call, Jimmy Sedtal said, would be from police to inform the family about the wreck.

The parents and child had traveled to Georgia from their home in Sour Lake, Texas, about 20 miles west of Beaumont. After spending Saturday night in Cartersville, the three were driving near Canton at the time of the crash, Jimmy Sedtal said.

Headen's brother, Travis Headen, told the AJC his brother was born in Georgia, but many family members now live in the Pensacola, Fla., area. Travis Headen said his brother, the oldest of four, had moved to Texas for work, and stayed in that state after meeting Charlotte Sedtal.

"He met her and decided to stay," Travis Headen said.

Travis Headen said his brother had planned to stop in Florida to visit family on the way back to Texas.

The couple was excited about their baby and planned to marry, family members said. Now, one family is preparing to bury a first-time mother and raise her son, while another family is mourning the loss of a former Marine. Rick Headen served four years in the Corps in the 1980s, his brother said.

An aunt from Virginia was traveling Monday to Atlanta, where she has to sign paperwork to have her sister's body released and to assume temporary custody of Dakota, Jimmy Sedtal said.

Once he's released from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite, Dakota will return to Texas to live with his grandparents, Jimmy Sedtal said, adding, "I can't wait for him to get home."

Funeral arrangements had not yet been finalized Monday, but Charlotte Sedtal's funeral will be held in Texas, her family members said. Rick Headen, who is survived by his two older children, is expected to be buried in Florida.