TAMMY Fox was driving along Pine Street, a quiet tree-lined road in Scranton, Pennsylvania, when her car started picking up speed.
Zipping by cars parked along the side of the street, Fox pumped the brakes of her black Hyundai Sonata as it hurtled toward an intersection, The Washington Post reports.
Accelerating at about 60 mph (100km/h), it ploughed into parked cars and hit a tree, according to Pennsylvania State Police and the Scranton Times-Tribune.
A witness saw brake lights flash, but the car still didn’t slow down.
Fox, a 38-year-old mother of five, died from “serious injuries sustained in the crash,” police said.
Organisers of a GoFundMe page raising money for her funeral expenses said Fox was killed “in a tragic car accident” on August 22.
But on Tuesday, her boyfriend, John William Jenkins, who was described as Fox’s “soulmate” in her obituary, was arrested and charged with criminal homicide.
“Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s mainly operator error,” Pennsylvania state trooper Bob Urban told WNEP. But a mechanical inspection of the car said otherwise.
After taking a closer look at the car, investigators discovered its brake lines, which transmit hydraulic pressure to slow a car, had been cut, the release said.
Authorities say Jenkins, 39, admitted to cutting the brake lines on Fox’s car the night before the crash. His reason: Jenkins had allegedly been trying to source a metal pipe that could be used to smoke crack cocaine.
By early Wednesday morning, the name of Fox’s fundraising page had been changed to “Justice for Tammy.”
“I just never bought that it was just an accident,” Lisa Vargas, Fox’s longtime friend, told WNEP.
Jenkins told police Fox was “driving him crazy” because she wanted a pipe to smoke crack.
Since he didn’t want to go to a store to buy one, Jenkins allegedly said he got under Fox’s car and started “hacking away” at parts to find something for his girlfriend to use.
Jenkins allegedly said he “cut anything from underneath the vehicle that could be used to smoke crack,” noting that he did not know anything about cars, WNEP reported.
Police found that three brake lines had been severed and a fourth was crimped.
Jenkins allegedly told police he had killed the victim and asked them to arrest him.
Jenkins was denied bail and is being held at Lackawanna County Correctional Facility. He has not asked for a public defender and no attorney is listed.
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Sept. 7.
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