Dennis And Sharon McDougal Airlifted From A Multi-car Crash, Die Within Days Of Each Other

DESERT CENTER, CA — Author and journalist Dennis McDougal and his wife, Sharon McDougal, passed away from injuries sustained in a multi-vehicle collision on I-10.

On Friday, at approximately 4 p.m., the couple was among multiple drivers involved in a pileup on westbound I-10, about 2.5 miles east of Red Cloud Mine Road in Desert Center.

Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department responded to the scene, involving four vehicles in the Chriaco Summit and Desert Center area. The pair managed to avoid the initial crash, but were severely injured when a driver behind them failed to stop, according to a Facebook post shared by Dennis McDougal's sister, Colleen. Both were airlifted from the scene to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.

He succumbed to injuries 12 hours after the crash, while Sharon McDougal passed away days later on Monday night, at the hospital, according to the Riverside County Sheriff's Department Coroner's Bureau.

Dennis McDougal was a consummate author with a writing career that spanned 50 years, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was a journalist at the Times, the Press Enterprise, and the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

He was the author of 14 books, both true crime and biographies. The couple relocated to Tennessee, and he was working on a book about his daughter Amy Riley's death, according to the Los Angeles Times.

According to McDougal's sister, over Facebook, they were heading to Los Angeles from Tennessee at the time of the pile-up crash.

"McDougal is survived by his children — Jennifer Dominguez, Kate Vokoun, Fitz Dearmore and Andrea Adkins — and 15 grandchildren," according to the Times.