A U.S. Marine stationed at Camp Lejeune was killed early Monday morning in a motorcycle crash on Interstate 95 in Clarendon County, according to the South Carolina Highway Patrol and Clarendon County Coroner’s Office.
Zeke Jerome Starr Villanueva, 20, of Colorado, died after the motorcycle he was driving struck a trailer being towed by a pickup truck, officials said. Villanueva was traveling north on I-95 when the collision occurred around 5:40 a.m. near mile marker 112, about three miles north of Summerton.
According to Master Trooper William Bennett, Villanueva was riding a 2025 Kawasaki motorcycle when it collided with the left rear of a trailer being towed by a 2015 Dodge Ram pickup, also traveling north. The impact caused the motorcycle to veer off the right side of the highway.
Villanueva was the sole occupant of the motorcycle and was transported by EMS to McLeod Health Clarendon, where he later died from his injuries. The driver of the pickup truck was not injured.
The crash remains under investigation by the South Carolina Highway Patrol.
