BEECH GROVE, Ind. — A woman is accused of leading Beech Grove police on a chase that fatally injured an innocent motorist.
Police were called to the Fifth Third Bank on Emerson Avenue on April 27 for a report of a woman in a black Hyundai using a stolen bank card in the drive-thru lane.
The bank tellers told police the woman gave them a withdrawal slip for $3,500 along with a driver’s license and bank debit card. They recognized the name on the license and receipt from a company email sent out earlier that day warning that the card had been stolen and was being used fraudulently, according to a probable cause affidavit.
The tellers alerted a manager who then contacted police as the woman, police identified as 45-year-old Angela Taylor, asked what the delay was. One teller said she was waiting for about five to 10 minutes and appeared “very nervous.”
Beech Grove Police Capt. James Baughn responded to the bank and observed a black Hyundai heading towards the exit of the parking lot at the same time dispatchers said the suspect was leaving.
Court documents show Baughn saw the car go south on Emerson, accelerate, and weave through traffic in an “attempt to flee.” Baughn activated his emergency lights, and in his account, says he saw the Hyundai run a red light at the intersection of Emerson and Thompson and “violently” collide with a Grand Marquis.
“The force of the crash sent the Grand Marquis through the intersection, over the curb and into a landscaped section area of an adjacent Walgreens,” reads the affidavit.
Police say the driver of the Grand Marquis, 76-year-old Patricia Cloud, was badly injured. Family later told police she sustained a lacerated liver with internal bleeding, five broken ribs, and a cracked vertebrate in her neck.
Investigators learned on April 29 that Cloud died from her injuries. The Marion County Coroner’s Office determined the cause of death was blunt force trauma from the crash.
After Taylor was arrested, court documents say police searched the Hyundai and found a debit card and an uncashed check with the name “Angela Taylor” inside a purse. Several pieces of foil with residue and a “straw like object” that Baughn recognized as being “commonly used to prepare and ingest illegal drugs, like methamphetamine” were also found in the purse.
Detectives later contacted the name on the debit card. The card belonged to a woman who told investigators her purse was stolen from her car at Brandywine Park the day before Taylor allegedly tried to use it at the bank.
Taylor was charged with fraud, possession of methamphetamine and paraphernalia, and resisting law enforcement with use of vehicle and causes death.
