'Don't ever ride in a car driven by Mary Hill.' That's what Carrie Brown, 14, was told by her mother, Olympic gymnastics coach Rita Brown. But it was Carrie's misfortune to be riding in the back seat of Mary Hill's BMW on August 7, 2000-the first day of school. With her were the driver's daughter, Amy Hill, 13, and fellow eighth grader Zachary Rockwell, also 13. In less than one-tenth of a mile, Mary Hill had accelerated from zero to seventy miles per hour, tearing along roads posted at nearly half that speed.
Mary Hill, 50, was a woman consumed by a rage that belied her outwardly picture-perfect life. Married to multi-millionaire Dennis Hill, 59, she lived with him and their two daughters in a mansion in the exclusive gated community of Wingfield North near Orlando, Florida.
She crashed the BMW that day, killing her daughter Amy and Carrie Brown outright and leaving Zak Rockwell with brain damage. Hill herself escaped with relatively minor injuries-but she couldn't escape the law.