3 dead after collision, suicide by gun confirmed

The investigation continues into an accident that claimed the lives of three motorists on State Route 89A in Sedona.

According to the Sedona Fire District, at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, June 7, emergency crews were called to a report of a motor vehicle crash involving two vehicles on West State Route 89A between Brewer Road and Rolling Hills Drive.

SFD crews determined three of the four occupants died on the scene. The fourth occupant was extricated from the vehicle and transported by air ambulance with life-threatening injuries.

By the time I arrived on the scene, they had already extracted the female passenger,” Fire Marshal Gary Johnson said. “When I walked up, it was horrific. In my 35 years with the Sedona Fire District, this is easily within the top 10 worst accidents I’ve seen here.”

The three occupants of a 2015 Toyota Prius have been identified as Moorthy Somasundaram, 33, of Phoenix. His wife, Swapna Ponnambalam, 29, was in the front passenger seat and his mother-in-law, Bhuvaneswari Ponnanbalam, 66, of India, was in the backseat of the vehicle. Somasundaram and his mother-in-law were pronounced deceased on scene. Swapna Ponnambalam was airlifted to Flagstaff Medical Center in critical condition.

According Lt. Lucas Wilcoxson of the Sedona Police Department, the driver of the second vehicle, a Jeep Cherokee, has been identified as 48-year-old Ross Scott Willoughby of Cottonwood. Family said he was known in the community as Scott.

According to the police department, an autopsy by the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s office determined that Willoughby died of a bullet wound consistent with that of a self-inflicted gunshot.