Support truly
independent journalism
The family of a boy who died in a car crash is demanding that his accused killer’s mother also be charged.
Flynn MacKrell, 18, was killed last November after a BMW, driven by his friend Kiernan Tague, crashed into a lamp post at 70mph, splitting the vehicle in half.
MacKrell was declared dead at the scene in Grosse Pointe, Michigan. Tague, 17, was taken to hospital with serious injuries.
In March, Tague was charged with second-degree murder and could spend life in prison. He has not been charged as an adult but is “adult designated” - meaning that a judge could sentence him as an adult, juvenile or impose a blended sentence, according to the Detroit Free Press.
He has been jailed ahead of trial which will be held at Wayne County Circuit Court.
Now, MacKrell’s family also want Tague’s mother, Elizabeth Puleo-Tague, to be charged with involuntary manslaughter over the fatal crash.
At the time of the crash, Puleo-Tague was in Canada and left the keys to her $70,000 BMW at home.
“She was sitting on a ticking time bomb,” Anne Vanker, MacKrell’s mother, told the Free Press. “She knows he’s out of control, yet she basically gets him a weapon. It’s like she handed him an AR-15.”
Vanker also said that she wants Kiernan Tague to be in jail as long as possible. “Why should he get a break? This kid had every break and every privilege there is,” the grieving mother said.
The MacKrell family has requested that the Wayne County Prosecutor charge Puleo-Tague in connection with their son’s death. An official warrant request for Puleo-Tague has also been made by Grosse Pointe Police Department to the prosecutor, according to the Free Press.
The Independent has emailed the police department and prosecutor’s office for comment.
Mitchell Ribitwer, an attorney representing Puleo-Tague, declined to comment due to pending litigation when contacted by The Independent.
Text messages between Tague and Puleo-Tague, obtained by the outlet, revealed that the teen had a history of breaking speed limits.His mother was also using a GPS location tracking app on her son, Life360.
On September 14, 2023, Puleo-Tague texted her son: “Slow… down right now!” The app had tracked him travelling at 123mph,
The app’s data also showed that he reached speeds of more than 150mph. The highest speed captured was on November 1, when Tague drove 153mph for 20 miles.
Two weeks prior to the crash, the 17-year-old made 94 car journeys and in more than half he reached speeds above 90mph, the Free Press reported.
Tague was also drag racing, according to videos taken from his phone as evidence.
In another text message, Puleo-Tague told her son: “Your obsession (word choice intentional) with cars having upwards of 600 hp — It’s not healthy. It’s not safe. And it scares me to my bone.”
Three weeks after sending that message, she bought the BMW.
The boy’s mother had tried several times to alert police to her son’s dangerous ways. The teenager had had 22 documented run-ins with police since 2017.
During the crash investigation, a police report stated: “The messages between the two suggest that Kiernan’s mother has little to no control over Kiernan. Kiernan regularly drove recklessly and took/used his mother’s credit cards without permission, despite his mother’s repeated orders not to.”
The boy’s parents divorced in 2019 and his father is deceased.
“His mother repeatedly told responding officers that she was afraid of Kiernan,” an officer wrote in one report.
The last encounter the teenager had with law enforcement before the crash took place on August 30, 2023, when police responded to the boy’s home “because he was yelling and throwing items within the house because his mother refused to get him an American Express Gold Card,” a report detailed.
If charges are filed against Puleo-Tague, it wouldn’t be the first time a parent has been held criminally responsible for their child’s crimes.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were sentenced to ten years on April 9 for involuntary manslaughter after their son, Ethan, carried out a mass shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford Township, Michigan three years ago.
