Mother Of Five Killed After Boyfriend Cut Her Brake Line To Make Crack Pipe, Police Say

A Scranton, Pennsylvania mother of five was killed in a car crash last week and police say it was no accident.

Her boyfriend confessed to cutting her vehicle’s brake lines to obtain a metal pipe that could be used to smoke crack cocaine, state police said on Wednesday.

John William Jenkins Jr. has been charged with criminal homicide in the Aug. 22 death of Tammy A. Fox. She was driving her black Hyundai Sonata that morning when "her vehicle began to accelerate," police say. Her car drove through an intersection before it "violently struck a tree," according to police. Fox died of her injuries suffered in the crash.

"A mechanical inspection and search of Fox's vehicle showed that the brake lines had been cut," police said.

During an interview with Jenkins, he allegedly confessed to cutting the brake lines the night before while at the couple's home, located less than two miles away from where Fox died. Jenkins allegedly told police that Fox was "driving him crazy" looking for a pipe to smoke crack, according to court paperwork obtained by WNEP in Moosic, Pennsylvania. He said he decided to "cut anything from underneath the vehicle that could be used to smoke crack."

According to the WNEP report, Fox was a witness in a local case against former Lackawanna County corrections officers who were accused of corruption and sexually assaulting female inmates.

It’s unclear if Jenkins has a lawyer who can speak on his behalf at this time. He is being held without bail.

[Photo: Lackawanna County Jail]