LaFAYETTE, Ga. -- Walker County Sheriff’s detectives have opened an investigation into possible improper conduct in the home of Patricia and William Price, the adoptive parents of a 12-year-old girl who died last week after being struck by a car on Ga. 151.

Ashley Boyd, a fifth-grader at Naomi Elementary, lived with the Prices at the Forest Green mobile home park just inside the Walker County at the Walker-Catoosa line on Ga. 151.

“Apparently this family and this child have a long history of having (Department of Family and Children’s Services) involved in Tennessee,” Sheriff Steve Wilson said. “And with people on the scene talking to us about things that concerned them, we notified DFCS here in Walker County.”

Trooper C.E. Thomas with Georgia State Patrol’s LaFayette post investigated the accident, which occurred Tuesday, Dec. 13.

Thomas’ report states that Ashley was hit near the mobile home park by a white Ford Explorer traveling south around 7 p.m. after “darting into traffic.”

The driver of the vehicle, Janet Stanfield of Hobart Lane in LaFayette, was not charged with any violation.

According to the accident report, Mrs. Price witnessed her daughter step into the roadway “intentionally.”

Neighbors at the scene also said they have reason to believe Ashley may have purposely ran in front of the oncoming vehicle.

One neighbor who was with Mrs. Price at the hospital after the incident said Ashley was distraught and told her mother she was running away.

They said Ashley was diagnosed with bipolar disorder (formerly known as manic depression) and has had “a lot of mental and medical issues.”

Sheriff Wilson said deputies were dispatched to the home on three separate occasions in September for what he characterized as “juvenile problems.”

“There are a lot of people saying a lot of things, and it could be that these allegations are unfounded,” said Sheriff Wilson, adding that he and his detectives are doing some background work on what they’ve been told and communicating with DFCS.

“If there is something, then we want to uncover it and resolve it, because there are other small children still in the Price home.”

At the scene

Forest Green resident Kelly Youngblood was at the scene soon after the accident. She said she heard the commotion and her instincts as a former volunteer firefighter kicked in.

“When I got there I saw a blanket covering something in the road and thought maybe it was a dog,” she said. “But then I kept hearing the little girl’s name and kept hearing moaning, so I knew it was one of the kids up here. We have a lot of kids over here.”

Youngblood said Ashley wouldn’t respond verbally, so she sat down next to her and coaxed the terrified mother and her friend to sit along with her.

“I knew it was pretty bad,” she said, adding that they just kept talking to the girl about Christmas and other topics to comfort her and to help keep her mother calm.

A Hutcheson Medical Center ambulance crew arrived and determined that Ashley needed to be airlifted to T.C. Thompson Children’s Hospital in Chattanooga.

She was taken to the Bethesda Baptist Church parking lot on Ga. 151, just south of where the accident happened, where the Erlanger Life Force helicopter could land.

Walker County coroner DeWayne Wilson said Ashley had suffered massive internal injuries and died Tuesday, Dec. 13, at 11:32 p.m. while undergoing surgery.