Passenger in Pierce County wreck is ‘fighting for her life’ following pursuit, family says
A passenger in a car that crashed on the Key Peninsula after Mason County deputies pursued it down a state highway suffered life-threatening injuries and is in a coma, her brother told The News Tribune on March 4.
Sonnie Mayo, 47, was the sole passenger in a silver Camry that crashed head-on into another vehicle near Wright Bliss Road Northwest and 144th Street Northwest on the Key Peninsula on Feb. 25, The News Tribune reported. The driver of the Camry died in the wreck.
The Pierce County Medical Examiner identified him as Jeffrey Allyn, 39, of Port Orchard. He was a suspect in an alleged property theft investigation and fled by car from a gas station after encountering Mason County sheriff’s detectives, who chased him down state Route 302, The News Tribune reported.
Mayo isn’t suspected of any crimes related to the incident, Mason County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Matt Colbenson told The News Tribune via email on March 3. Colbenson also wrote that the agency is unsure of her relationship to Allyn.
Mayo is from Salem, Oregon, and has two grown sons who live in Iowa, according to an email from her brother, Bob Huddleson. She came up by train to meet Allyn 48 hours before the wreck, Huddleson told The News Tribune. He doesn’t know how she knew Allyn.
Mayo has compound fractures in all four limbs and has been in a coma for several days, according to her brother. She’s “fighting for her life,” he wrote.
This isn’t the first serious wreck she’s been in, he said.
“She hasn’t driven a car since she got in a terrible car accident in Iowa back with her boys years ago,” Huddleson wrote.
Mason County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Colbenson initially told The News Tribune that the passenger in the silver Camry suffered minor injuries, but later clarified that the driver hit by the Camry suffered minor injuries and “was alert and conscious at the scene.” The passenger in the Camry suffered “significant injuries and was extricated from the vehicle before being airlifted to Harborview Medical Center for treatment,” Colbenson wrote in an email.
He also wrote that the sheriff’s office generally doesn’t receive updates on patients’ medical condition after they leave the scene.
The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office handled the traffic investigation part of the incident, but their agency also doesn’t receive updates from the hospital on patients’ condition, Pierce County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Carly Cappetto told The News Tribune on March 4.
Asked what property Allyn allegedly stole, Colbenson didn’t give specifics. He wrote that Allyn “has had numerous prior involvements with law enforcement in Mason County, including cases related to burglary, theft, and motor vehicle theft.”
“Detectives were working on recovering property that had been allegedly stolen from multiple burglaries in Mason County as part of an ongoing investigation,” Colbenson wrote.
This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
