3 dead in accident in Jenkins County

A Portal family lost three of their loved ones in a tragic accident in Jenkins County Wednesday night. Two other family members survived, with one in critical condition at a Savannah hospital. Lois Burke, 68, her 6-month-old great-granddaughter Paisleigh Hill and the baby’s mother, Cortney Hill, 23, all died in the crash around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of Highway 25 and Gay’s Hill Church Road, near the Bulloch-Jenkins county line, according to reports from Georgia State Patrol Post 21 in Sylvania. Burke’s husband, Ottis Burke, 66, and another granddaughter, 4-year-old Aleigha Shultz, survived. Ottis Burke is in critical condition after being flown by helicopter to Memorial Hospital in Savannah, while the four-year-old was taken to East Georgia Regional Medical Center in Statesboro, where she was reportedly released after treatment. Susan Burns, the Burkes’ daughter and grandmother of cousins ​​Paisleigh and Aleigha, said the family was with her father at the memorial on Thursday.