Dallas, Texas: Driver Reached 82 MPH Before Crash That Killed Two SMU Graduates, Affidavit Says

A driver charged in the deaths of two recent Southern Methodist University graduates reached a peak speed of 82 miles per hour on a road posted at 35 miles per hour before the crash, according to an arrest affidavit reported by FOX 4 Dallas. The crash happened on October 6 near White Rock Lake in Dallas, in the 9200 block of Garland Road. Two young people died, and the driver accused of causing it had her own two children in her car, the affidavit says.

Dallas police responded to a major accident on October 6 and found three vehicles had been involved, FOX 4 reported. Julian Harris, 22, was driving a Toyota Prius on Knob Oak Drive with Madison Duren, 22, in the passenger seat. As Harris tried to turn left onto Garland Road, the Prius was struck by a Hyundai Elantra driven by Aldrea Rogers, 22. Harris died at the scene. Duren was taken to a hospital, where she later died. The third vehicle in the crash left before police responded, according to the report.

The affidavit puts Rogers' peak speed at 82 mph shortly before the impact, on a stretch of Garland Road where the listed speed is 35 mph. Rogers' children were in the Elantra at the time of the crash. All three, Rogers and both children, were taken to a hospital and survived, FOX 4 reported. Friends of the couple told the station it was hard to take in that the driver charged over their deaths is the same age they were, and that her children were in the car.

Rogers was arrested on October 16 and charged with two counts of manslaughter, a second-degree felony, FOX 4 reported. She remains in the Dallas County Jail on a $500,000 bond. Fox News Digital, reviewing Dallas County jail records, reported the bond as $250,000 on each of the two manslaughter counts, and national reports on Friday, October 23 carried the affidavit details beyond Dallas. The New York Post report on Friday repeated the 82 mph figure, the two manslaughter counts and the $500,000 total bond from the jail records.

Harris and Duren had recently graduated from SMU and stayed active in the Dallas theater scene after school. Their friends Eli Barron and Emmet Overcarsh told FOX 4 the couple loved learning and meeting people, and brought that energy to local theater. The couple were leaving their apartment near White Rock Lake when the crash happened. A memorial service for Harris and Duren will be held at SMU on Saturday, October 31, at 4 p.m., FOX 4 reported.

The affidavit is an allegation filed to support an arrest, and the manslaughter case now moves through Dallas County court. Police have not, in the reports published so far, explained the third vehicle that left the scene or said whether investigators are still looking for its driver. What the record does show is a speed figure nearly 50 mph over the posted limit, two deaths, and a court date ahead for a 22-year-old defendant whose children survived the crash that killed two people her own age.