What was supposed to be a joyful first Christmas for a Nashville infant has turned into heartbreak for her mother, Teliah Hill, after her car — packed with her 10-month-old daughter’s gifts, car seat, stroller, and clothing — was stolen and later destroyed in a high-speed, fiery wreck.
Hill, a full-time worker, full-time student, and full-time mom, had been squeezing every hour of her day to make her baby girl’s first holiday season memorable. She stored the gifts in the car, she said, because her daughter is “really nosy” and tends to pull on anything she finds around the house.
Everything changed on November 29, when Hill walked outside and realized her car was gone.
Just hours later, Metro Nashville Police traced her vehicle through GPS, sparking two separate police pursuits — one in Nashville and another in Mount Juliet.
Officers say the stolen car was speeding more than 100 miles per hour when it collided head-on with another vehicle on Central Pike.
The crash killed one woman inside Hill’s stolen car and injured six people in the other vehicle. Both cars caught fire.
When Hill arrived at the crash site with police, she saw the remains of her daughter’s car seat lying in the burned grass — one of the only recognizable items left.
“The car was on fire and everything was gone,” she said. “I lost pretty much everything.”
Grass along Central Pike is still charred. Medical supplies remain scattered. And for Hill, the emotional toll is still unfolding.
She says she needs help to rebuild what was lost — not only to replace the baby’s essentials, but to salvage a holiday she hoped her daughter would remember through photos and family stories.
“A new car, a car seat, the gifts, the clothes — a lot of things, actually,” Hill said, describing what support, through her GoFundMe, could help her recover.
For now, she is doing what she has always done: pushing forward. But the loss of her car and her daughter’s first Christmas gifts has added another burden to a young mother already juggling more than most.
