WARREN — A motorist died Saturday afternoon on I-69 after slamming into the back of a truck parked on the shoulder of the road.

The crash happened around 3:15 p.m. in the northbound lanes of I-69 in Huntington County near the town of Warren, according to Huntington County Sheriff’s Office.

According to police, eyewitnesses said the driver of a Tesla was using the shoulder to pass vehicles on the interstate at high speed. 

The semi had been parked on the shoulder of an exit ramp for an extended time before the crash happened, police said.

Both northbound lanes were closed for about two hours afterward.

No other serious injuries were reported.

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ELKHART — Two people, including a woman from Milford, died in a crash in Elkhart County on Friday that also injured two others.

The collision happened at about 7:41 a.m. Friday at the corner of County Road 40 and County 17.

Police believe an eastbound Toyota GR8, operated by 24-year-old Alismond Kid Saentavanh, disregarded the stop sign at County Road 40 at County Road 17 and collided with two vehicles in the intersection – one traveling north and the other traveling south.

Donna Rae Gushwa, 69, Milford, who was headed north in a Ford Escape, died at the scene.

Steven Perez, 21, Elkhart, who was driving south in a Ford Explorer also died at the scene.

The Ford Explorer then flipped and collided with a northbound Honda CR-V operated by Susan D. Jacobs. 

Saentavanh, of Wakarusa, was transported to Elkhart General Hospital for complaints of pain and a possible broken collarbone.

Jacobs, 59, Elkhart, was taken to Elkhart General Hospital for a broken ankle, clavicle and knuckles.

The crash remains under investigation.

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WARSAW — One of two people injured in a motorcycle accident Sunday in Warsaw has died.

Warsaw Police isssued the following statement Wednesday.

According to the Allen County Coroner, Heather Hildabridle, 33, of Mentone, died Monday as a result of trauma sustained in the motorcycle crash.

The driver of the motorcycle suffered a leg injury.  Both were flown to a Fort Wayne hospital.

The crash happened on North Detroit Street.

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MILFORD — A Leesburg man died in a traffic accident Wednesday afternoon in a collision on SR 15 south of CR 1350N and north of Milford.

57-year-old Michael W. Troup died after the Chevy Trail Blazer he was driving collided with an International Box Truck driven by 58-year-old Joel Machorro De Leon of Elkhart

The accident happened around 12:30 p.m., Wednesday.

Troup died at the scene, according to a news release from the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office.

De Leon was uninjured.

A 65-year-old passenger in Troup’s vehicle, Penny Coppes, OF Milford, was transported by Lutheran EMS to Lutheran Hospital in Warsaw for treatment of lacerations and pain.

The cause of the accident is undetermined at this time.

The crash remains under investigation.

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PLYMOUTH — A motorcyclist died in a traffic accident on US 30 near Plymouth on Sunday morning.

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MENTONE — Indiana State Police are investigating a police pursuit that ended in a single-vehicle fatal crash early Sunday morning at the request of the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office and Mentone Police Department.

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WARSAW (WANE) — On Thursday, Indianapolis businessman Kevin M. Kelley, who ran over and killed a 20-year-old tuber on Lake Wawasee four years ago, was found not guilty of reckless homicide.

The criminal charge came more than a year after the Aug. 8, 2020 incident after the lead DNR investigator, Jake Boggs, compiled all the evidence, according to his testimony. The pandemic slowed the investigation, Daniel Hampton, Kosciusko County prosecutor, said.

The level 5 felony would have carried a sentence of one to six years in prison. Now, an order of acquittal will be filed in the case.

The jurors had to weigh the testimony of two different factions – the tubers who part of a group of eight Indiana University students visiting Kelley’s North Ogden Drive residence on Johnson Bay — and four adult guests who were on Kelley’s Premier Tri-toon luxury pontoon boat with a Suzuki 300 hp outboard when Nathan Mroz, of Fishers, was killed.

Story continues below.

The tubers and another college friend acting as spotter around 6 p.m. that day recalled Kelley driving aggressively, at high speeds, taking turns at a high velocity and not slowing down enough as he approached the downed tubers during those runs. Nearly everyone who testified said the day was sunny, windy and the water was choppy. They also said there were a lot of boats out on the lake.

A surviving tuber, Jake Gillay, said he’d never witnessed such dangerous boat handling and nearly called off the runs, but trusted the adults aboard as Kelley drove.

The tubers said his driving habits were much different than Francis “Frankie” Spellman, the initial driver who was far more cautious, as was another driver earlier in the day. Spellman moved to the back of the boat to help out the spotter, college friend Brett Boram.

Spellman said he would have told Kevin if he’d had an issue, he added.

The defense witnesses, including Spellman, and other boat occupants testified they found nothing out of the ordinary in Kelley’s boat handling and didn’t find it unsafe.

Kelley was pulling the three tubers on two tubes.  Mroz was in the middle of the other two when all three were “flipped” off the tubes, court testimony indicated.

Mary Karen Zahn and David Deal, the Indianapolis attorneys representing Kelley, were quick to put the blame on Boram, whose job it was, they said, to report back to Kelley and others on the boat when the boys went down.

“The spotters didn’t do their job,” the defense said.

However, Prosecutor Daniel Hampton said there is “no statutory example” for the duties of a spotter, sometimes referred to as an observer, but there are for the boat’s driver, he said.

The boat’s driver is responsible for the people in the boat, the speed in reaction to the weather and density of traffic, and driving in a “careful and prudent manner,” Hampton said, among other regulations.

Even more important, the driver is not to create dangerous conditions, which the tubers said Kelley did with his “excessive” donuts or circles and “barely missing” tuber Gillay, when he went down on an earlier run and reported that Kelley  cruised by him too closely.

Although Spellman said he never heard the thud as the boat hit Mroz and dragged him through the propeller, others testified they did hear the noise.

His mother-in-law Christy Reed, a Kelley family friend, said there was nothing that caused her concern or that she found “unsafe.” She, too, said she never heard the thud that Boram said Wednesday sounded like the boat had hit a log.

The next two witnesses, however, did hear that deadly thud, even though the lake was choppy that day, made even wavier by the wake boats, and, as the tubers testified, by the “excessive donuts”, presumably to make even more powerful waves that make tubing more exhilarating.

Christine Kelley, Kelley’s wife, testified she was very involved before and after the accident. She’d just stood up when she heard the thud and cried “what was that?” She looked back and tried to find the “boys” and only saw two.

Christine Kelley saw Mroz’s blue life jacket toward the front of the boat, not back with the spotters. It was determined by a forensic expert that Mroz was mowed down by the front of the boat.

Through her tears, she recalled the trip back to the pier when one of the tubers, Brenden Klenke, was being towed by the boat, and Gillay and Boram were onboard with the victim trying to stop the blood loss and save Mroz’s life.

She and her husband found themselves in their bedroom overlooking the water and “tried to console one another.” They didn’t know how or why it had happened, she said.

When she left the bedroom, she heard another college friend, who was not on the boat, confront Kevin Kelley.

“What did you do to my friend?” Christine Kelley heard him say. Michael Reed, Spellman’s father in law, who was on the boat and made the 9-1-1 call, had to get between them.

Reed also testified that he and his wife bought a lake house on Lake Wawasee and owned a similar horsepower Tri-toon that could go as fast as 52 miles per hour, finally putting a possible speed on Kelley’s pontoon boat because no one knew how fast the boat was going at the time of the accident.

So many of those who testified said they did not see Mroz in the water, although his fellow tuber, Gillay, said he heard him say “I’m here,” and saw him put his hands up. When that happened, it was too late as the boat came down upon him.

Hampton went back to what part of the boat struck Mroz.

“It’s his fault,” Hampton said. “He was hit not on the side, not on the back. He was hit in the front of the boat.”

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WARSAW — One person was killed in a traffic accident Tuesday morning west of Warsaw.

The crash happened at the intersection of CR 350W and CR 200N in Kosciusko County.

Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Deputies and emergency personnel received a call at 8:40 a.m., of a two-vehicle motor vehicle crash at the intersection.

The crash involved a 2005 Dodge Dakota driven by Javier Iraheta Jr. and
a 1998 Ford Crown Victoria driven by Clifford G. Grubb.

Clifford G. Grubb, 64, of Warsaw was pronounced dead at the scene by the Kosciusko County Coroner’s Office.

Preliminary investigation determined that Iraheta Jr. was southbound on CR 350W and collided with the Ford Crown Victoria, driven by Grubb.

Grubb’s vehicle was eastbound on CR 200N and failed to yield to the southbound Dodge Dakota, according to a news release from the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office.

Iraheta Jr., 26, of Warsaw complained of knee pain but refused medical
attention.

The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by the Warsaw
Police Department, Warsaw-Wayne Township Fire Territory, Lutheran EMS,
Kosciusko County Coroner’s Office, Kosciusko County Central Dispatch, Crouse
Wrecker Service, and Ravin Wrecker Service.

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WARSAW — An Etna Green bicyclist was killed in a traffic accident Monday night north of Warsaw

The accident happened at about 7:20 p.m. at the intersection of CR 600N and CR 200W involving a Tacoma pickup and a bicyclist.

When Deputies arrived, it was determined that a 2002 Toyota Tacoma had been northbound on CR 200W and collided in the intersection with a bicycle that was traveling east on CR 600N. 

The Tacoma was driven by 21-year-old Kevin Hesser from Leesburg.

The bicyclist, 21-year-old Marlan Schwartz of Etna Green, died at the scene.

No other details were released.

The crash investigation was turned over to the Kosciusko County Fatal Team. The Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office was assisted at the scene by Leesburg Fire Department, Lutheran EMS, Samaritan Air Ambulance, Indiana Conservation’s Office and Kosciusko County Coroner’s Office.

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WARSAW -- A 30-year-old motorcyclist was killed in a two-vehicle accident Thursday afternoon, and the driver of the other vehicle was injured.

According to information provided by Warsaw Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Brad Kellar, at 3:06 p.m., WPD and other emergency first responders were called to the intersection of Ind. 15 (Detroit Street) and Anchorage Road regarding a “serious traffic collision involving a motorcycle.” Further information received was that the motorcyclist was not moving.

Upon arrival, officers saw the motorcyclist suffered extensive injuries and, despite life-saving efforts, he succumbed to his injuries at the scene. The man, who was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident, was operating a 2019 Harley Davidson FXD and had been traveling north on Detroit Street approaching Anchorage Road.

The victim’s identity is being withheld pending notification of family.

The other vehicle involved was a white 2018 Lexus GX4 driven by a 54-year-old woman who had been southbound on Detroit Street and was in the process of turning eft turn onto Anchorage Road at the time of the collision.  She suffered significant injuries and was taken to Lutheran in Fort Wayne by Lutheran EMS.

The Kosciusko County coroner, as well as the Kosciusko County FACT were called to the scene to assist in the investigation.  Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory and the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office aided the WPD at the scene of the accident.

This is an active investigation, as several interviews were conducted at the scene of the crash. No other information is available at this time.

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