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Missouri Woman Accused Of Cutting Other Driver 'In Half' In Horrific Road Rage Incident
Elizabeth McKeown later told police she "tricked" the victim and pretended to be nice after the fender bender, but then struck the other woman and dragged her body down the street.
A woman in Missouri who’s been called a “potential danger to every single person” in her community has been accused of deliberately hitting the driver of a car she rammed into and cutting that woman “in half” as she exited her car to assess the damage.
Elizabeth McKeown, 46, now faces first-degree murder charges in the violent road rage incident, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
McKeown had allegedly been on her way to the bank to handle a car payment when she got stuck in traffic. The suspect reportedly told police that she got frustrated after the woman in front of her, identified later as 57-year-old Barbara Foster, "wouldn't go," so she started to nudge the vehicle then decided to hit it "full out," the Springfield News-Leader reported, citing a probable cause statement.
Police said McKeown told them she "tricked" Foster and tried to "make her think I was going to be nice" after the crash.
Foster reportedly got of her car to assess the damage and had walked around the back when McKeown "slammed into her and cut her in half," dragging her body 58 feet before crashing into another vehicle, The Associated Press reports.
A witness at the scene later told police he yelled at McKeown to tell her she had struck someone in the Nov. 20 incident. She allegedly mouthed, "I know."
After McKeown crashed into a second vehicle, drivers used their cars to box her in until police could arrive.
Since the arrest, new details have emerged about McKeown, a one-time nurse who reportedly had her license suspended in Arkansas in 2006 after she was caught stealing prescription drugs on two occasions, the News-Leader reports.
Fred Knight, the Arkansas State Board of Nursing's general counselor, told the newspaper that after McKeown, a wife and mother, had been caught stealing Nubain, a trade name for the opioid painkiller nalbuphine, she had been ordered to complete a psychological and addiction evaluation, but she never did.
She was also at one point licensed to be a nurse in the state of Missouri, but the authorization expired in 2013. Records show that she had also worked at one time for a real-estate company.
Police have said it is too early to determine whether McKeown was under the influence of any substances when the incident occurred.
The victim's brother, Robert Ayers, told the News-Leader last month that his sister's body had been too mangled for a public viewing and had to be cremated instead.
He described his sister, who had worked at Eyeglass World, as someone who was feisty, strong and caring, but could also be “soft and sweet.”
[Photo Credit: Greene County Jail]
