Michigan authorities have requested an arrest warrant for a relative of a teenager accused of killing an 18-year-old star swimmer in a horrific crash, while the victim’s parents are demanding that the driver’s mother be held responsible for the tragedy.
Flynn MacKrell was killed instantly last November when Kiernan Tague, then 16, lost control of her mother’s BMW while driving more than 100 mph in a 25 mph residential zone in Grosse Pointe.
The MacKrells say their son’s death could have been prevented by Kiernan’s mother, Elizabeth Puleo-Tague, a campus minister at a Jesuit high school who allegedly knew Kiernan had a habit of speeding but failed to keep him away from her BMW.
The Wayne County District Attorney’s Office told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that Gross Pointe police had requested an arrest warrant for a relative of Kiernan, though they could not confirm it was for her mother Elizabeth.
“He had no regard for the safety of his passengers or the safety of pedestrians, and Flynn’s mother knew that,” said Flynn’s father, Thad Mackrell. Good morning America on Wednesday.
The Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office told DailyMail.com on Wednesday that Gross Pointe police have requested a warrant for a relative of Kiernan, pictured.
Elizabeth Puleo-Tague has been accused of failing to take reasonable steps to prevent her son from harming others after noticing his speeding, as evidenced in several texts.
“Any reasonable person would have done something very, very simple: they would have taken her keys, but she didn’t do that and our son is dead.”
Kiernan has been charged with second-degree murder in his friend’s death, but the MacKrells say they want their mother to be held accountable, too.
“Every day we wake up in shock and disbelief that our beloved Flynn is gone,” said the star swimmer’s heartbroken mother, Anne Vanker.
Flynn MacKrell, pictured, was killed instantly last November when Kiernan Tague, then 16, lost control of her mother’s BMW while driving at more than 100mph in a 25mph residential zone.
The MacKrells point to the case of Oxford shooter Ethan Crumbley, whose parents were convicted of involuntary manslaughter in a landmark case earlier this year for providing the gun he used to kill four people.
Kiernan lost control of the vehicle just five minutes later while traveling at 105 mph, crashing into a utility pole and then a tree. The force of the impact destroyed her mother’s BMW X3 M and killed Flynn, a standout swimmer at the University of Dayton.
Kiernan escaped with his life but is now out on bail awaiting trial after being charged with second-degree murder in March. His trial is scheduled for February 2025.
DailyMail.com has contacted Elizabeth for comment on this story.
Elizabeth’s employer, the University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy, declined to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com on Wednesday.
As previously reported, police are investigating Elizabeth after text messages surfaced showing she was aware of her son’s speeding habit, which she had intimate knowledge of through a GPS app called Life360.
Flynn’s parents previously told The Detroit Free Press that Elizabeth should face criminal charges, with her devastated mother, Anne, saying, “It’s like I handed her an AR-15.”
Among the text messages, Elizabeth wrote to Kiernan on September 14, 2023, two months before the accident: ‘Slow down right now!’
This came after the then 16-year-old was caught travelling at 123mph in the family’s Audi coupe.
“I have screenshots of you… going 123mph… Scares me to the bone,” said another.
“He didn’t care about the safety of his passengers or the safety of pedestrians, and the mother knew that,” Flynn’s father, Thad Mackrell, told Good Morning America on Wednesday.
Flynn’s parents, Anne Vanker and Thad Mackrell, are seeking to use the messages to show how Elizabeth failed to take reasonable steps to prevent her son from harming others.
They wrote in a letter to local prosecutors: ‘(Kiernan) was speeding over and over again, and Mom knew it.’
Not only that, but Elizabeth, the campus minister at a local Catholic school, bought a new BMW weeks after sending those text messages and proceeded to give her son access to it, even though it could reach speeds of 177 mph.
Kiernan had a history of misconduct other than speeding, including an assault on his mother in 2020.
Grosse Pointe police officers discovered the crimes and wrote a report outlining the more than 20 offenses and the problems he was having at home before he took the BMW out for his fateful final trip while his mother was in Canada.
Citing the “extensive” text messages between the two collected during this effort, one investigator wrote: “There was a lot of talk about Kiernan taking/using her mother’s credit card without permission, being out during overnight hours without permission, and Kiernan’s extensive reckless driving habits.”
The investigator added: ‘The messages between the two suggest that Kiernan’s mother has little to no control over him.
‘Kiernan regularly drove recklessly and took/used her mother’s credit cards without permission, despite her mother’s repeated orders not to do so.’
Another exchange cited was a text message from the mother to her 16-year-old son on October 2, 2023, just over a month after the accident.
Kiernan was going over 100 miles per hour in a 25 mile per hour zone when he crashed his mother’s new BMW X3 M on November 17, 2023.
He said, “Would you bring me a bottle of wine? Please!” to which Kiernan replied, “Of course.”
A week later, her mother sent her a screenshot of a website detailing the penalties for having a fake ID.
In 2020, police responded to a call from the mother after she claimed her son “had just assaulted her and fled the area,” troopers wrote.
The report goes on to explain how the incident occurred: when Kiernan was picked up from his friend’s house and became angry with his mother.
“While in the front seat, Kiernan turned around and began hitting her mother (who was in the back seat) and even bit her on the hand,” an officer wrote.
Kiernan, in turn, was arrested for domestic violence and briefly held at the Wayne County Juvenile Hall.
In November of last year, days before the accident, another fight broke out between the two, this time at home, during which Kiernan broke a table after her mother refused to let her use one of her two cars.
“I just asked you to take your car… but you refused. Now I’m late and we have a broken table,” Kiernan wrote in a text message on Nov. 3, 2023, according to the report obtained by the Free Press.
He also apologized: “I’m sorry about your table.”
Within two weeks, the accident occurred; as police wrote, most of the calls they received about Kiernan were complaints that she was out of control at home.
“Her mother repeatedly told responding officers that she was afraid of Kiernan,” an investigator wrote, adding that the most recent visit to the family home was on Aug. 30 of last year.
The reason for the visit was “because (Kiernan) was yelling and throwing objects inside the house because his mother refused to get him an American Express Gold card.”
Elizabeth, the campus minister at the University of Detroit Jesuit High School, bought herself a new BMW weeks after sending those texts and then gave her son access to it, even though it could reach speeds of 177 mph. Stock image of a BMW X3 M seen above
The Mackrells are now using the mother-son exchanges as proof that Elizabeth knew for months that her son was driving recklessly, but did nothing about it.
Speaking to the Free Press, he mentioned that Elizabeth also owns a 2015 Subaru Forrester, but continued to allow her son to drive the much more powerful Audi and then the BMW even after warning him about what he was doing.
But buying the BMW and leaving the keys for him to take freely was the worst offense, he said, comparing the prospect to handing the unruly teen a loaded assault rifle.
“I was sitting on a time bomb,” Vanker told the newspaper, eight months after her son’s death.
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