PHOENIX - A fatality on Interstate 17 resulted in the freeway being shut down for much of the late morning and afternoon near the accident scene at Thomas Road.
Lt. Robert Lee Bailey said at about 10:15 a.m. the Department of Public Safety received a call of a person who fell out of their vehicle and on to the roadway on the northbound lanes of the I-17 under the Grand Avenue overpass near the HOV lane.
According to DPS the woman was stuck by one vehicle and that vehicle was rear-ended by a utility truck.
DPS confirmed the Phoenix woman had just lost custody of her children and apparently committed suicide by jumping out of the back seat of a crew-cab truck she was riding in with her mother and sister.
The woman has been identified as Brenda Suzanne Ownby, 36. She died on scene.
According to Ownby's family she had been quiet and hadn't said much after leaving court before the incident.
The freeway re-opened just before 2:30 p.m.
