Driver arrested after passenger dies in fatal crash on I65
Jan 16, 2025
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — A driver was arrested after he crashed his car and killed a passenger Thursday morning on I-65 southeast of Lafayette, Indiana State Police say.
The identity of the passenger was being withheld pending positive identification from the Tippecanoe County coroner and a notification of their next of kin.
Framber Monserrat, 29, of Chicago, was arrested and preliminarily charged with three felonies: operating a vehicle while intoxicated causing death, neglect of a dependent causing bodily injury, and operating a vehicle while intoxicated endangering a minor. She also faces a misdeameanor charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
The single-vehicle crash was reported to the state police and the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Office about 10 a.m. Thursday on I-65 northbound just over 7 miles north of the State Road 28 exit for Frankfort and Attica.
Investigators believe the 2008 Hyundai Accent veered onto the shoulder on the west side of the road for an unknown reason. The driver overcorrected, causing the vehicle to cross back over the northbound lanes before leaving the interstate on the east side. The vehicle rolled over and came to rest on its roof.
The passenger in the car died at the crash scene. Monserrat and a juvenile passenger were taken to a Lafayette-area hospital with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.
Sgt. Jeremy Piers, a public information officer for the state police, wrote in a news release that a trooper gathered “information leading him to believe that Monserrat was under the influence at the time of the crash. Upon his release from the hospital, Monserrat was taken into custody and transported to the Tippecanoe County Jail.”
Monserrat remained in jail on Thursday afternoon. Online court records on Thursday afternoon did not yet show a case for Monserrat.