ERLANGER, Ky. — A woman has been arrested in connection with the death of Javier Lemus, the man killed on I-71/I-75 in Northern Kentucky on April 20, according to Kenton County court documents.
A complaint filed in Kenton County alleges Fancie Orr caused Lemus' death by driving under the influence of substances which impaired her driving ability.
When the incident happened in April, police said Lemus was outside of the vehicle when he was hit by a semi-truck. Officers on scene said Lemus was found in the roadway and had "catastrophic injuries not compatible with human life."
We asked Erlanger Assistant Police Chief Michael Clark at the time if police had determined yet why the person who was killed was walking on the highway at that hour.
"Not fully at this time, which is why the details are so limited," he said, mentioning that more information would be available once family members were notified. "There's just so many unanswered questions right now that we're trying to dig through."
The complaint, filed July 30, alleges Orr was stopped on the side of I-75 in a Ford Escape when officials responded to the scene to conduct crash reconstruction.
According to the complaint, Orr told witnesses she was driving when Lemus opened the door and jumped from the vehicle. Officials on scene saw Orr's vehicle was missing the passenger side door and had "significant damage" on the passenger side.
Officials also found damage to a guardrail and debris thrown in the road near the guardrail, the complaint states.
The crash investigation determined Lemus was the unrestrained, front-seat passenger in Orr's vehicle when it struck the guardrail, causing the door to be ripped off, the complaint states. Lemus was ejected from the car into the roadway.
The complaint alleges dash camera video from the semi-truck involved shows Orr's body among the debris in the roadway after the crash. The driver of the semi-truck did not see Lemus in time to stop, but stopped after and was cooperative was the investigation, according to the complaint.
The complaint states Orr was driving 100 mph in the seconds leading up to the crash and 80 mph at the time of the crash. A blood sample and exam led investigators to believe Orr was under the influence of alcohol and marijuana when she crashed.
