COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
Jan. 3, 2022, is a day first responders, like Boone County Assistant Fire Chief Gale Blomenkamp, struggle to relive.
“It was a very horrific wreck,” Blomenkamp said. “One of the worst I’ve seen in my 34 years of doing business here.”
Blomenkamp was one of several first responders to respond to a crash on Highway 63 near Lake Road in Boone County. The Boone County Fire Protection District got the call around 7:30 p.m. that someone had been driving the wrong way and crashed head-on into another vehicle.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol later found the crash to be connected with the sale of alcohol to a minor. The person who sold that alcohol was also allegedly associated with another liquor store three years later.
Firefighters didn’t know the extent of what they were walking into. All they knew was that law enforcement officers already on scene were calling for additional ambulances and a possible death. They arrived to find two vehicles with extensive damage and confirmed three people had died.
About 30 minutes after they were originally dispatched, first responders discovered a fourth person was dead. That included three in an SUV, and the 19-year-old wrong-way driver in a separate vehicle.
The wreck left three adults dead and killed a 10-year-old girl. Three children were also injured.
According to the crash report, Keith Sumner was traveling southbound in the northbound lanes, colliding head-on with 29-year-old Jessica McKinlay and her five passengers. Officials also said that 34-year-old Christopher McClain and 19-year-old Keith Sumner died in the crash.
“You got little kids that are now going to the hospital without a parent, or two siblings that have gone to the hospital knowing that another one is probably deceased at the scene,” Blomenkamp said. “You got families that are trying to reach loved ones, and they can’t reach them. Phones are just ringing, ringing, ringing. Many times we’ll see on the screen mom or dad calling … that makes it pretty hard to do those extrications.”
Dash Convenience and Liquor Store on Ninth Street sold alcohol to Sumner that day, a Missouri State Highway Patrol investigation found. The crash happened later.
An investigation also found that the store had sold Sumner alcohol several times and had sold it to other minors without checking identification. The store lost its license to sell alcohol months later, in June.
Blomenkamp said it’s never the firefighters’ responsibility to figure out what caused a crash, but there were indications that alcohol played a factor that night.
“The liquor bottles, the alcohol, that were scattered amongst in that one car, it seemed pretty obvious, but again, that is just a suspicion on our part,” Blomenkamp said.
More than three years later, a southwest Columbia liquor store’s doors are still shut, after its license to sell alcohol was revoked. Spring Creek Liquor — owned by Liquor Vault LLC — had its license revoked in August, after the owners did not appeal the state’s decision to take the license.
Records obtained by ABC 17 News from the Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control show the store’s license was revoked after it was discovered the owners of Dash Convenience Store — Jay Patel and Dashrath Patel — were associated with the business.
Court records show Dashrath was charged with selling alcohol to a minor the day of the deadly crash. Court documents say he sold four 50 ml-sized bottles of alcohol to a “K.S.” He paid a $300 fine in January 2023.
The Missouri Secretary of State’s Office listed the two as owners of the business as of 2017.
According to documents, Alcohol and Tobacco Control received an anonymous complaint on Feb. 24, 2025, stating two people were working at the store who were barred from having anything to do with a liquor business. The two identified as those individuals were Dashrath and Jay Patel.
Under Missouri law, a person whose license was revoked is not eligible to apply for a new one until five years after the date of the revocation.
Documents state Spring Creek Liquor applied for its original license in August 2024. The business then received its license to sell liquor on Sept. 5, 2024.
Alcohol and Tobacco Control then launched an investigation.
Watch ABC 17 News at 10 and check back here to see the rest of the story.