MIAMI TWP. FATAL CRASH PROBE SLOWED BY ISSUES
Car-theft suspect remains in custody; officer on administrative leave.
The investigation into a fatal police-involved crash during a pursuit in Miami Twp. last week is taking longer then usual, officials said.
The car-theft suspect who was pursued by Moraine police on Sept. 11, Alyssa Irwin Debraux, remains the Montgomery County Jail on a grand theft booking. The 18-year-old Dayton woman has not been formally charged.
Moraine Officer Matt Barrie was pursuing Irwin Debraux southbound on Ohio 741 when he struck a vehicle driven by Realtor Mary Taulbee of Lebanon, who later died. Another vehicle avoiding the pursuit had struck Taulbee’s vehicle, causing it to enter the path of the pursuit, officials have said.
Taulbee’s death, the number of vehicles in the crash and their speeds are issues that make the crash scene “a little more complex, with a lot of moving parts,” said Lt. Mark Nichols of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
“It’s a complex crash in that it’s a tragic crash (because) somebody has lost their life,” he said. “So we give it the absolute attention a crash of that magnitude deserves.”
A crash report by the highway patrol commonly takes about 10 days to complete, Nichols said. In this case, he said, the Dayton post expects to file one about 15 days from the night of the crash.
Crash reconstruction units are working to “map
the scene out,” he said.
“That’s kind of where we’re at right now, collecting everything,” Nichols said.
In the meantime, Irwin Debraux remained in jail Wednesday. She is being held on $100,000 bail after being booked Sept. 11 on a grand theft charge.
Barrie, Moraine’s 2017 Officer of the Year, was chasing the Jeep authorities said was driven by Irwin Debraux. The Jeep had been reported stolen minutes before and was spotted by Barrie, who attempted to conduct a traffic stop before getting approval for the pursuit, records show.
Barrie was put on administrative leave after the accident, Moraine Police Chief Craig Richardson said last week. Moraine officials on Wednesday declined to comment on a series of questions, including those about Barrie’s status.
The speed of the three vehicles — the Moraine cruiser, Taulbee’s Hyundai and a Chrysler driven Brandon Miller, 32, that struck Taulbee’s Hyundai — at the time of the collisions at Carnation Road that night has not been determined, Nichols said.
Barrie reported his speed reached 80 mph seconds before the deadly collision, Moraine police records show.
However, that speed was recorded as the southbound cruiser started the incline of a hill that is about a quarter mile long and plateaus near the crash scene, Moraine records show.
Taulbee, a 57-year-old Realtor who worked for years in Dayton, Engelwood, Lebanon, Miamisburg, Springboro and Washington Twp., was traveling northbound on the state route, according to the highway patrol.
Taulbee was pronounced dead at Kettering Hospital, according to the OSHP.
Irwin Debraux was arrested a short time later after she wrecked the Jeep near the Dayton Mall following a pursuit by Miami Twp. police who were responding to the fatal crash scene, according to the township.