HUDSON, Fla. -- A 16-year-old girl and her unborn child died after a Sunday night crash in Pasco County, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

  • Emily Blake Pearson, unborn child killed in crash
  • Pearson, 16, was 7 months pregnant
  • Charges are pending, FHP investigators say

Troopers said that at about 9:11 p.m., 75-year-old Margaret Ann Wallace was behind the wheel of 1997 Nissan Maxima when she pulled out of the Fairway Oaks Shopping Center at 13752 Little Road.

At the same time, James Steven Dunn, 19, was driving a 1997 Ford Ranger with 16-year-old Emily Blake Pearson as a passenger going northbound on Little Road, an FHP report said.

That's when the Maxima struck the passenger side of the Ranger, it said.

Both vehicles spun out, and Pearson was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital, where she and her unborn child died. Dunn survived the crash.

Pearson was seven months pregnant. 

"Everybody is devastated right now, kind of lost for words" said Emily's father-in-law, also named James Dunn.

The elder James Dunn told us his son and Pearson were on their way to see her father for Father's Day when the crash occurred.

"My son is a mess," he said. "This was his family. He's a young man, 19 years old, just starting out. He loved her."

Family members now are doing their best to focus on the best of times.

"They wanted to go on a honeymoon that was private where nobody would bother them," Dunn told us. "So I sent them to South Florida near Lake Placid, and the closest place and the closest convenience store was about five miles away, and my son called me up laughing about it and said they had a good honeymoon."

Dunn said the couple had recently moved into their St. Petersburg home and were eagerly anticipating the birth of their daughter in August.

"They were going to name their child Bella," he said.

Alcohol isn't thought to be a factor in the crash. Both Wallace and Dunn were wearing seat belts, but Pearson was not, FHP investigators said.

Wallace wasn't hurt, and Dunn incurred minor injuries.

Charges are pending in the crash.