A woman charged with a hit-and-run crash that killed a Michigan State University student has fled to her native Thailand to avoid prosecution, according to the FBI.
Tubtim “Sue” Howson, 57, is accused of fatally knocking down Benjamin Kable, 22, as he walked home in Oakland Township after telling friends he’d been kicked out of an Uber in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
She “allegedly told a close associate after the crash that she thought she killed somebody and was she going back to Thailand,” where the US citizen was born, an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint.
When the pal told her to turn herself in, she replied, “No cops, no cops,” the filing stated.
Howson became a suspect four days after the crash via parts of her 2016 white BMW 320i left at the crash scene.
Tubtim “Sue” Howson arrived in Thailand the same day she became a suspect in the deadly crash, the FBI said.
But by then, she had already fled the country for Bangkok on a one-way ticket via Dallas and Finland — arriving in the Thai capital the same day she became a suspect, the criminal complaint said.
She was charged Monday with a federal crime for fleeing the country “with intent to avoid prosecution and/or imprisonment,” the filing stated. She already faced a state charge of failing to stop at a serious accident.
Kable’s dad, Michael Kable, told the Detroit News that the suspect fleeing arrest “keeps the wound open.”
“Losing your child is terrible, there’s so much grief associated with it and having the hit-and-run aspect to it just makes it even worse,” he said. His son, a “gentle soul,” was home for the holidays at the time.
“Finding out that the person fled the country basically to avoid any consequences for their action is disappointing,” he added.
“I just don’t understand how you can live with yourself, the way you did it,” the grieving dad also told Fox 2 Detroit.
“Just the lack of empathy and humanity it would take and then just plot your getaway.”
Benjamin Kable’s dad, Michael Kable, said he couldn’t understand “the lack of empathy and humanity.” WJBK“All we can do is cross our fingers that we get some justice,” he said of ongoing attempts to get the suspect back from Thailand, which has an extradition treaty with the US.
Howson had lived with her husband and kids just half a mile from the crash scene, the station said.
Her husband was still home Wednesday, more than a month after his wife jetted out of the country. He told Fox2 that the crash was “not my fault” and he “wasn’t even in the country” at the time.
Howson reportedly lived close to the deadly crash site. WJBK“Two families have lost somebody here,” the husband, who was not identified, told the local outlet.
Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said he was working with prosecutors and the FBI to “hold the suspect to account.”
“I call on the Thai government to extradite her so we can hold her accountable for her actions involving this young man’s tragic death,” said the sheriff, a former state Senate majority leader.
