Authorities chased a man accused of stealing a baby over the weekend after a car crash claimed the lives of two teens and injured a third.
According to a news statement from the Fremont County Sheriff’s Office, a mother reported early Sunday morning that a male acquittance had driven off with her 1-year-old child in a Kia Sorento.
The unnamed woman said that she had been the victim of domestic abuse and that the man had taken her from Nebraska but abandoned her at a Hamburg, Iowa, hospital.
The “man was suicidal and homicidal,” she told officials, according to the sheriff’s office.
According to the sheriff’s office, the Kia was pursued by Fremont County officers and Iowa State Patrol troopers, and the pursuit even extended into Missouri.
The suspect who was operating the Kia started driving “at a high rate of speed” in a northbound lane before crashing into a 2013 Ford Focus, according to the sheriff’s office. The 1-year-old was saved by cops despite the Kia being completely destroyed by fire.
According to a Missouri State Highway Patrol collision report, the Ford Focus included three 18-year-olds. In the collision, two of them—a girl and a boy—were declared dead at the site.
The third individual, a traveler, was reported to have suffered “serious” injuries. The accident report states that the suspect who was operating the Kia was killed in the collision.
The Missouri State Highway Patrol and Fremont County failed to identify the accident victims. KSHB identified the youngsters as Aubrey and Lucy Yeates, twin sisters from Kearney, Missouri, and their friend Kole Cunningham.
While Aubrey was recuperating in a hospital, the accident claimed the lives of Lucy and Kole. According to a GoFundMe for Aubrey’s medical costs, the Missouri teenagers were going to Omaha that weekend to see singer Billie Eilish play.
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In a statement, Kearney’s mayor expressed his sympathies to the victims’ families. “In times of sorrow, I offer my deepest sympathies to the Cunningham and Yeates families,” Governor Randy Pogue wrote in a Facebook message. “May courage and hope be the steadfast companions of both families, friends, and all who mourn.”
In a statement, the Yeates family expressed gratitude to the community for the assistance they have received while Aubrey heals from this “horrific experience.”
“This incredibly senseless and tragic event has left our families with a hole that will never be filled,” according to the statement.
