Hailee Shackelfurd, 31, was mother of 2
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
A woman has been charged with felony driving under the influence in connection with a crash last week on Lady’s Island that killed a Beaufort mother of two.
Court records show 23-year-old Isabelle She’A Zilko was arrested March 21 and charged with felony DUI resulting in death following the March 16 crash on Brickyard Point Road.
The Beaufort County Coroner’s Office identified the victim as 31-year-old Hailee Autumn Shackelfurd, who died from multiple blunt force injuries sustained in the collision.
The crash occurred at approximately 12:45 a.m. Sunday, March 16, near 153 Brickyard Point Road.
According to Cpl. Nick Pye with the South Carolina Highway Patrol, a 2004 Toyota pickup was traveling north when it ran off the right side of the roadway, overturned and struck a tree.
Shackelfurd, who was a passenger in the vehicle, was pronounced dead at the scene.
The driver was transported to a local hospital.
Zilko was released on a $100,000 personal recognizance bond, according to records from the Beaufort County Public Index.
The case remains pending in Beaufort County General Sessions Court.
The S.C. Highway Patrol continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash.
A GoFundMe campaign created to support Zilko’s recovery states she suffered severe injuries in the crash, including a broken neck, broken collarbone, broken ribs, fractures in her back and compressed discs.
As of Tuesday morning, March 24, the campaign had raised just over $8,000 toward a $20,000 goal.
A life remembered
Shackelfurd, who was born June 9, 1994, in Fairfield, Calif., and raised in South Carolina, is being remembered by family as someone whose presence drew people in, someone who made others feel seen whether they knew her for years or only moments.
“Hailee was a strong, smart, loving, beautiful and driven person,” her brother Preston Shackelfurd wrote in a fundraiser created to support her family. “She was a patient and loving mother of two.”
Her two children, Haiden, 10, and Oleander, 6, were “beaming examples of the love their mother filled them with every moment of every day,” he wrote, adding that she had a gift for making birthdays and holidays feel special.
She worked at Dockside, where coworkers and customers alike came to know her for her warmth and quick wit, a place where regulars often asked for her by name.
Family members described her as someone who would show up for others without hesitation, offering support and steady presence to those around her.
A GoFundMe campaign organized by her family to help cover funeral and memorial expenses and to establish a future fund for her children has drawn an outpouring of community support.
As of Tuesday morning, the fundraiser had raised nearly $63,000, far exceeding its original $20,000 goal.
“We want to honor her memory by coming together as a community to support her children and give her the farewell she deserves,” Preston Shackelfurd wrote.
Services and support
The family received friends Monday, March 23, at Anderson Funeral Home.
A graveside service followed at Forest Lawn Cemetery.
In addition to her parents, Donn R. Shackelfurd and Marcella Friese Shackelfurd, she is survived by her children, her fiancé Travis Belflower, and her brothers, Preston, Camden and Trenton Shackelfurd.
For those who knew Shackelfurd, the loss is measured not just in what happened that night, but in what she gave while she was here and in the community now rallying around her children in her absence.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
