Man decapitated in apparent drunken car crash

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) -- A man apparently drunkenly drove off the road early Sunday and hit the support wire of a telephone pole, which decapitated his passenger, according to police reports. John Kemper Hutcherson, 21, then continued to drive 12 miles home and slept in his blood-spattered clothes, leaving the headless body of Francis Daniel Brohm, 23, in his truck overnight, police said. "It's hard for one to imagine that you would drive (several) miles from a crash site to your home, turning in various directions, and yet not know what has happened to a passenger sitting next to you in your vehicle," said Cpl. Dana Pierce, spokesman for Cobb County police. A neighbor out on a stroll with his baby daughter around 8 a.m. Sunday discovered Brohm's headless body inside the 1992 Chevrolet Z-71 parked in Hutcherson's driveway and called authorities. Only the car's sideview mirror was damaged, authorities said. Hutcherson has been charged with first-degree vehicular homicide, driving under the influence, failure to stop at an accident with death or injury and failure to maintain lanes. Hutcherson is being held at Cobb County jail and had a first court hearing Monday morning, where a judge increased his bond from $10,000 to $100,000. Police said Hutcherson and Brohm, who were friends since high school, were hanging out at a bar Saturday night and left after Brohm said he felt sick. About a mile and a half from the bar, Hutcherson swerved off the road and hit the support wire of a telephone pole, which severed Brohm's head, police said. Authorities were uncertain how fast Hutcherson was driving when he ran off the road. The decapitated head was later found in bushes near the pole. Officers said Hutcherson appeared remorseful after they found him sleeping inside his home Sunday morning, still covered in blood and visibly inebriated. This is Hutcherson's fourth stay in the Cobb County jail, a sheriff's official said.