A Muskego man is facing multiple charges, including reckless homicide and hit-and-run, after allegedly crashing his car and leaving his 77-year-old mother to die inside the wreckage.
Police say the crash happened around 7:15 p.m. Sunday near Hillendale Drive and Maple Court. Neighbors reported hearing a loud collision and then saw a car smashed into a culvert. Responding officers and fire crews from Tess Corners found the vehicle severely damaged, as per local ABC WISN.
According to investigators, the driver, 39-year-old Casey Yiannackopoulos, was seen staggering from the car before fleeing the scene on foot, leaving his mother trapped inside. The crash occurred just a block from the home they shared. The woman was pulled from the vehicle and taken to a nearby hospital, where she later died from her injuries.
During a court hearing in Waukesha County on Tuesday, prosecutors said Yiannackopoulos ran home and hid in a crawl space for nearly four hours while emergency crews tried to save his mother. “After going around and seeing his mother was trapped in the vehicle unconscious, he then fled the scene, claiming he was going to get help, only to hide in his mother’s crawl space for about four hours,” Assistant District Attorney Jack Rieder told the court.
Police said when they arrived at his home, Yiannackopoulos refused to surrender. Officers ultimately used a taser and a police dog to force him out of hiding.
Court Commissioner Daniel Rieck expressed outrage during the hearing, calling Yiannackopoulos’s actions “depraved.” “This went from driving while drunk, having what one would presume is a very unfortunate, traumatic accident, losing your mother, but then quite literally leaving her to die. Why? Because you didn’t want to get in trouble,” Rieck said.
Yiannackopoulos later told police he would have been “way more cooperative” if he had known his mother was dead. Although authorities suspect he was intoxicated at the time of the crash, Yiannackopoulos refused to take field sobriety tests. The results of his blood draw are still pending, and he has not yet been charged with driving under the influence.
Given the severity of the allegations, Commissioner Rieck set bail at $750,000—three times higher than the amount requested by prosecutors. Yiannackopoulos remains in custody at the Waukesha County Jail as investigators continue gathering evidence in the case.