In the early morning hours of February 16th, 2017, at around 2:30 a.m., 35-year-old Elizabeth Vargas-Hernandez was operating an SUV containing 3 passengers. Vargas-Hernandez was driving at a high rate of speed when she struck the back of 66-year-old David Kriehn’s vehicle on I-465 near Michigan Road. Kriehn was ejected from his vehicle as it slid off the road, flipping multiple times before landing in a ditch. Vargas-Hernandez’s SUV also overturned and landed upside down on the right shoulder of the road.
Kriehn, a Noblesville resident and retired Missionary Man, was rushed to St. Vincent’s Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. The passengers in Vargas-Hernandez’s SUV were examined at the scene and later released. Upon the officer’s request to see Elizabeth’s identification, she was unable to provide any. She was also examined on the scene when police smelled alcohol on her breath and noticed her watery, bloodshot eyes. She was given a Breathalyzer test at the scene where she blew a 0.11, which is 0.03 above the Indiana legal limit. While being transported to Eskenazi Hospital for a routine blood draw, Vargas-Hernandez admitted to the trooper that she been illegally living in the states for about four years, thus why she did not have any identification on her.