PANAMA CITY— Investigators say a local woman fled the scene of a fatal crash and then removed parts of her vehicle to conceal her identity from the police.
Ida Renee Cardwell, 34, of Panama City Beach, was charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving death and tampering with evidence, according to an arrest affidavit filed by the Panama City Police Department.
Police reports state Cardwell was driving a gray Camaro at about 10:15 p.m. Friday in the westbound lane of U.S. 98 near Harrison Avenue when the vehicle struck the back of a motorcycle that was headed westbound as well. The driver of the motorcycle, 21-year-old Ethan Tyler Casey, a local resident, was killed in the wreck, police said.
After Cardwell fled the scene, police wrote, she went to her Panama City Beach residence, removed parts from her vehicle and placed them in a trash bin near her home. Investigators added she placed other parts from the vehicle in her trash can, under other trash, in an attempt to have the evidence removed with the trash collection.
Cardwell was arrested Monday morning and placed in the Bay County Jail. Her boyfriend, Anthony Michale Cristofaro II, 27, was arrested at the same time and charged with providing false information to law enforcement during an investigation, police wrote.
Cristofaro was located at a residence that he shares with his mother on Hickory Avenue in Panama City. According to an arrest affidavit, Cristofaro repeatedly lied to investigators about Cardwell's location. However, his mother gave police permission to search her RV, where they found Cardwell. The affidavit says after Cardwell was found, Cristofaro admitted he knew she was in the RV.