KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A 27-year-old woman from Wisconsin, Kyrie Fields, has been arrested and charged in the hit-and-run crash that killed Charlie Criniere last month.
Criniere, a father of 10 who taught at the Martin City K-8 School, was riding his bike around 6:15 a.m. along View High Drive near Longview Lake on Aug. 27 in south Kansas City, Missouri.
He was struck and killed by a passing vehicle and the driver fled the scene.
The Jackson County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office announced Tuesday that Fields has been charged with leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death and tampering with a motor vehicle in the first degree, both are Class D felonies under Missouri law and punishable by up to seven years in prison.
According to court documents, Fields was driving a white Acura MDX, pieces of which were found at the scene where Criniere was killed, that morning. She admitted to being "high on Percocet at the time of the crash," according to a KCPD probable cause statement.
Grandview police recovered a vehicle matching the description, which had been set on fire Aug. 28, a day after the hit-and-run crash.
The vehicle was found in the 13400 block of U.S. 71 and investigators determined it had been towed from the 2800 block of Southwest 10th Terrace in Lee's Summit "after the alleged owners state the vehicle had struck a deer," according to a KCPD probable cause statement.
Fields allegedly used a fake name to order the tow shortly before midnight on Aug. 27, the day of the crash.
Investigators matched parts recovered at the scene of Criniere’s death to the vehicle and Fields admitted to police she had been driving it at the time of the deadly crash.
Fields said she was texting a friend and took her eyes off the road at the time she ran over Criniere.
She was arrested Monday and told police her boyfriend was a passenger at the time of the crash.
Fields acknowledged that she knew the vehicle was likely stolen, but she'd had it in her possession "for a few months." She also told police her Wisconsin driver's license was revoked and that she didn't have insurance for the vehicle.
Prosecutors have requested a $100,000 bond.
