When police arrived at the scene, they reported finding the woman unconscious and in the passenger seat with the driver nowhere to be found — she would succumb to her injuries about an hour later and die.
A Wisconsin man’s 77-year-old mother is dead and he’s now facing multiple charges after he allegedly crashed his vehicle and then fled the scene, leaving her trapped and unconscious in the passenger seat.
Casey Yiannackopoulos, 47, is now facing charges of first-degree reckless homicide, hit-and-run involving death, and two counts of resisting or obstructing an officer.
Officers responded to the call at around 7:15 p.m. on Sunday, according to a press release from the Muskego Police Department, where they found the injured woman alone in the car. Police reported there were several passersby who had stopped to help at the scene, but the driver was nowhere to be found.
After breaking through the front and side windows, per Law&Crime, the victim was transported to a local hospital, but succumbed to her injuries and died about an hour later.
According to the probable cause affidavit seen by Law&Crime, witnesses reported seeing the driver flee the scene. He was described as appearing intoxicated with a strong stench of alcohol, with witnesses saying he was unsteady on his feet as he told them he was running to get help.
Police, however, stated that he did nothing of the sort, instead running and hiding.
Officers quickly learned that the victim lived down the street from the accident site, so they checked there first for her son, the missing driver. When they arrived, according to the affidavit, they spotted a ladder leading into a crawlspace with its door ajar.
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The suspected allegedly refused police orders to come down, and so around 10:45 p.m., they documented sending a drone up into the attic crawlspace. There, they detailed being able to see the suspect hiding underneath blankets and a plastic bin cover, per the report.
Even still, Yiannackopoulos allegedly refused to move, so police were ultimately forced to physically remove him from the crawlspace so that they could take him into custody. In the affidavit, he was described as having bloodshot and glassy eyes when apprehended.
He allegedly told officers “it was an accident” and added that he would have been “way more cooperative” with them if he had known that his mother was dead. The affidavit states police are awaiting the results of a blood toxicology test for him as Yiannackopoulos refused a field sobriety test on the scene, per ABC affiliate WISN.
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Investigators were also able to track down surveillance footage which showed the vehicle traveling at least 50 mph in a 30 mph zone before it went off the road and crashed.
In Waukesha County Circuit Court to face his charges on Tuesday, Court Commissioner Daniel Rieck did not mince words when speaking to the defendant. “As I read through your criminal complaint, sir, quite frankly, the word that came to mind over and over was depraved,” he said, according to WISN.
“This went from driving while drunk, having what one would presume is a very unfortunate, traumatic accident, losing your mother, but then quite literally leaving her to die. Why?” he asked. “Because you didn’t want to get in trouble.”
Yiannackopoulos’ bail was set at $750,000 — three times what prosecutors requested.
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