News that the suspect in a recent multi-vehicle crash in Cochise County walked away from a Tucson hospital is drawing comparisons to a fatal accident on the same highway last summer in which the suspect also left a medical facility, allowing her to avoid arrest in a murder case for several weeks.
Luciano Michael Kristoff reportedly left Banner University Medical Center on March 18 after coming out of a coma sustained 10 days earlier when he violently crashed a stolen truck at the U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint on State Route 90 while fleeing from law enforcement at speeds up to 100 mph.
The Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) initially had Kristof under watch at the hospital but the severity of his injuries led to the watch being cancelled. His recent departure from the hospital against medical advice has triggered efforts to take him into custody for his March 8 actions.
A similar thing happened five months ago in another DPS case involving a woman actually charged with first-degree murder.
Elanah Marie Tucker is now being held in the Cochise County jail in lieu of $1 million bail to await trial. But on July 28, 2022, Tucker was at the wheel of a Ford Expedition when she refused to yield to various law enforcement vehicles attempting to make a traffic stop.
Tucker, 26, lost control of the Expedition and crashed head on with another vehicle after driving over a tire deflation device placed in the roadway near the SR90 / Interstate 10 interchange. The front seat passenger died in the crash.
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Tucker herself suffered critical injuries, but purportedly admitted at the scene to intentionally fleeing from law enforcement and being engaged in transporting undocumented migrants for pay.
“A search warrant to Elanah Tucker’s cell phone revealed that she has transported UNC’s on more than one occasion and has negotiated prices per UNC with coordinators,” DPS Det. Marcus Anderson noted in a court document.
Due to the severity of Tucker’s injuries, she was not placed under guard despite being indicted in early August on multiple felonies. Instead, her indictment included a nationwide arrest warrant that would be executed when, and if, Tucker recovered.
Tucker spent a few weeks in a Tucson trauma hospital before being transferred to an in-patient rehabilitation facility. She the entered an outpatient program on Sept. 28 to continue her recovery.
But on Oct. 16, the DPS detective learned Tucker was no longer participating in rehab and may have possibly fled the state. The only lead as to Tucker’s whereabouts was the fact her mother told Anderson that her daughter had recently been active on Facebook.
This led the detective to request and obtain a search warrant from a Cochise County judge on Oct. 20 in hopes Facebook and its parent Meta Platforms could provide evidence related to Tucker’s location.
“Your Affiant strongly believes that receiving the records from Meta Platforms Inc. from October 1, 2022 to October 18th, 2022 will reveal Elanah Tucker’s location, any messaging indicating a plan to flee from being arrested on the current charges, and any persons currently harboring the fugitive,” Anderson wrote in his affidavit in support of the search warrant.
The judge also issued a non-disclosure order preventing Meta / Facebook from notifying Tucker she was the subject of a search warrant. Doing so, the judge stated, “could hinder, or jeopardize” the investigation.
Court records show Meta / Facebook provided DPS the requested data on Nov. 4 and Tucker was booked into jail Nov. 10. In addition to first-degree murder, Tucker is also charged with second degree murder, aggravated assault, unlawful flight from law enforcement, and multiple counts of endangerment.
Tucker will be back in court for an April 14 pretrial conference although no trial date has been announced.
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