Kit Roberts
Text messages have revealed that a Michigan mom knew about her 17-year-old's speeding problem prior to a fatal crash.
Flynn MacKrell, 18, was killed when his friend Kiernan Tague, 17, lost control of a car they were both travelling in.
Tague had picked his friend up from his parents' home in Detroit suburb Grosse Point on November 17.
The 17-year-old had been driving a BMW X3 M series, a powerful car owned by his mom Elizabeth Puleo-Tague.
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Only a few minutes after picking up his friend, Tague lost control of the vehicle while travelling at 105mph in a 25mph zone.
The car smashed into a post and then a tree, completely destroying it.
Mackrell was killed on impact and Tague survived after being taken to hospital with serious injuries.
The 17-year-old has since been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the incident, and is now awaiting trial while out on bail in Wayne County.
Since the tragedy text messages have emerged which indicate that Tague's mom was aware of his speeding.
Nonetheless, she still allowed him to drive the high-powered cars owned by the family despite her concern.
On September 14, she had allegedly texted her son after being alerted by the Life360 GPS tracking app that he was travelling at 123mph in an Audi coupe owned by the family.
She reportedly wrote her to son telling him to 'slow the f**k down right now!' while in another message she told him that his speeding 'scares me to my bone'.
In a separate message the mom allegedly told her son: “I have screenshots of you doing 90 mph in the middle of the night when I didn’t even know you had left … And again two weeks ago going 123 mph just because."
MacKrell’s parents Thad Mackrell and Anne Vanker hope to show that the messages demonstrate that Puleo-Tague was aware of her son's behaviour prior to the crash in which their son died.
They've asked Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to bring charges against her.
They drew attention to the model of car, which she gave her speeding son access to despite it being capable of up to 177mph.
Vanker told the Detroit Free Press: “She was sitting on a ticking time bomb. She knows he’s out of control, yet she basically gets him a weapon.
“It’s like she handed him an AR-15.”
She added: "To say this is a living hell is an understatement.
"My life has been ruined. My family’s life is ruined. No one should ever, ever have to lose a child like this ... I still can’t believe my son — my big calm son — is gone."