OROVILLE — A former Paradise resident who avoided sentencing for more than two decades was sentenced in Butte County Superior Court to nearly seven years in prison.
Elizabeth Bumbaugh, 57, will serve six years and eight months for a DUI vehicular manslaughter conviction from 1999. Instead of showing up for her sentencing that June, she moved to the state of Washington and changed her name, District Attorney Mike Ramsey said in a news release.
On Sept. 26, 1998, Bumbaugh caught the attention of a Paradise police officer when she quickly drove out of the parking lot of Rocky’s bar with two passengers in the car. The officer followed her, and she began to speed, reaching 70 mph in a 25-mph section of Skyway. Bumbaugh eventually crashed into a pine tree and was ejected from the car, suffering serious injuries.
The passenger in the front seat was immediately killed, and the passenger in the back seat suffered serious injuries.
According to Ramsey’s release, Bumbaugh said she fled and changed her name out of fear of going to prison. While living in Washington in 2004, Bumbaugh was convicted of a felony assault, but her California warrant was not discovered.
