Foster care girls could face attempted murder charges for stolen car joyride near Salina
The undersheriff of Saline County says two teenage girls in foster care could face attempted murder and other charges over a Monday evening incident where they stole a car from an employee of the facility where they lived — and then ran over her during their getaway.
The girls, 14 and 17, were inside of a building at St. Francis Ministries, 5097 W. Cloud St., in rural Saline County with the employee around 6:40 p.m. Monday when they grabbed the employee’s purse out of an office storage area and took off running, Undersheriff Brent Melander told The Eagle in a phone interview.
Melander said the girls “jumped into the employee’s vehicle” to flee the property. But the employee followed and flung herself onto the hood of the car to try to stop them.
The employee was “yelling at them to get out,” Melander said.
Instead of following her orders, the girls drove off with the employee hanging on, he said.
The girls took off down a dirt road while the employee shouted for them to stop, Melander said. At some point, whichever one was driving slammed on the brakes, hurling the employee off the hood and into the road, he said.
The girls then ran over the employee one time, causing serious but non-life-threatening injuries to her lower torso, before taking off, Melander said.
The employee’s injuries were “substantial enough that she had to be taken to the hospital,” he said.
Melander said the girls drove west to Ellsworth, where they were arrested without any trouble by an Ellsworth County sheriff’s deputy who found them in front of a house in the stolen car. He didn’t know why the girls went there.
The girls were taken back to the Saline County Sheriff’s Office for processing before being transported to the juvenile detention facility in Junction City, Melander said.
They are being held on suspicion of attempted second-degree murder, theft of a motor vehicle, conspiracy, criminal solicitation and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license.
Melander didn’t know which girl was driving when the employee was run over but said that both teens operated the car after stealing it. The car, a 2016 Chevy Trax valued at $17,000, was returned to its owner, he said.
