A Utah woman died in a car crash while fleeing a repossession agent, police said this week.
“I’ve never, in my 15 years of law enforcement, I’ve never seen a repo agent be this aggressive. I’ve never seen anything like it,” Pleasant Grove Police Lt. Britt Smith said, reported the Deseret News.
Ashleigh Holloway Best, 35, was estimated to be traveling at least 70 mph in a 35 mph zone when she hit a tree after 12 a.m. on Tuesday. She was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash after she was extricated from the vehicle.
The repo agent who was allegedly chasing her is 49-year-old On Demand Repos employee Kenneth Drew.
Drew was booked into the Utah County Jail for investigation of manslaughter, the Deseret News reported.
Drew claims he hadn’t been chasing Best, said Brian Edwards, owner of On Demand Repos.
“He told me she started going really fast so he stopped,” Edwards told the paper.
“My driver, he’s a good guy. He doesn’t have a mean bone in his body. His does his job. He respects people. I don’t know the whole details of last night. I just wish everybody would wait to see what the investigation shows.”
Smith said that when Best left her home, the tow truck chased her.
“There was a pursuit that occurred that lasted for 10 to 12 blocks,” he told Good4Utah.com. “It is usually protocol and procedure for them not to give chase.”
A preliminary investigation shows that Drew drove past Best and hit her on the front side of her car, causing her to lose control and hit a tree, Smith said.
“We believe there is physical evidence to establish the repossession agent was attempting to force her off of the road,” he added. “He even made statements he was trying to stop the chase and bring it to an end.”
Best had recently moved to Utah with her husband and two kids.
“The family is kind of down on their luck. They are in a financial jam and that’s the only family vehicle,” Smith added. “They are in shock and they are just trying to figure out where they go from here,” he said.
