Crime & Safety

Coroner: Suicide Likely Cause of Train Death

Joyce Lillian Brook allegedly laid across railroad tracks near North Hickory Street.

The woman struck and killed by a train headed through Summerville to Charleston Tuesday afternoon appears to have committed suicide, according to Dorchester County Coroner Chris Nisbet.

Nisbet identified the woman as Joyce Lillian Brook, 54, of Summerville in a statement Tuesday evening. 

Nisbet said Brook appears to have "committed suicide by laying on the railroad tracks." The coroner's statement verifies a previous statement from an EMS official to Patch. The official said the woman was waiting on the track with no one else around. 

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The impact from the train killed Brook instantly, but an autopsy is still scheduled for Wednesday, Nisbet said.

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