A Thai-American woman who fled to Thailand from the United States denies knowing she had killed a student with a car there but will return to face prosecution.
Tubtim “Sue” Howson, 57, made her comments while being paraded before reporters Wednesday at a news conference where top police brass said they would extradite her at the request of U.S. authorities to face charges.
“It was dark and I hit something with the car,” she told reporters. “At first I thought I hit a deer but later realised it was a man.”
Tubtim reportedly stopped for awhile before fleeing in the BMW that she had hit and killed university student Benjamin Cable with on New Year’s Day. And an American FBI agent attested in court filings that she “told a close associate after the crash that she thought she killed somebody and that she was going back to Thailand,” That’s exactly what she did, two days after hitting Kable, after telling friends “no cops, no cops.”
Police Gen. Surachate Hakparn said she had been staying southeast of the capital in Chonburi province since she arrived Jan. 5. After her evasion of justice made headlines worldwide, she relocated to Ratchaburi province on Feb. 10.
Kable was a 22-year-old electrical engineering student at Michigan State University.
It was unclear what charges the 57-year-old U.S. citizen would face. Local authorities in the U.S. state of Michigan named her in a felony arrest warrant for failing to stop at the scene of a fatal crime and said they may also charge her with fleeing to avoid prosecution, which is also a felony.
