Man steals car with woman in backseat, kills her in high-speed crash: Dallas police

DALLAS - A woman was killed in a stolen car crash in Southeast Dallas over the weekend.

The suspect survived that crash and is charged with murder. The victim was a backseat passenger in the car when it was stolen from a gas station.

Before the crash, police say the car reached very high speeds.

Officers found the wrecked vehicle just before 11 a.m. Sunday along Murdock Road, South of the CF Hawn Freeway.

According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Darion Thomas told investigators he was inside a gas station when he saw two people get out of a car and walk in.

Thomas walked out to see if the car was still running. Since it was, he stole it, police say. And when he was driving off, he realized someone was in the back seat. A minute later, that woman was dead.

Pieces of debris lying in the road mark the spot where a deadly car crash came to an end Sunday morning in Southeast Dallas.

Mireya Diaz lives nearby right where Murdock Road makes a sharp curve turning into Dowdy Ferry Road.

"We came out here to see, saw the car out here pretty mangled," she recalled. "There was a good amount of cop car presence out here."

According to Dallas police, Darion Thomas stole a black Honda Accord from the parking lot of a Fox gas station a mile away on Murdock Road.

Police say the owner of the car and her husband went inside the gas station but left the car running with a friend lying down inside.

"What we know at this point is he stole the vehicle from a nearby business with the victim in the back seat, and then he sped away and crashed hitting a pole," explained Jesse Carr with the Dallas Police Department.

A security camera from a nearby home on Murdock Road captured the car speed by before crashing into a power pole. It shows the car burst into flames upon impact.

"The girl, unfortunately, was out in the street, and people were still trying to pass by," Diaz said.

The victim who was ejected from the stolen car was identified in an arrest affidavit as 32-year-old Karen Mariela from Honduras. She died at the scene.

Family members say the mother of two left her home country for Texas about a year ago to provide for her family. 

A witness told investigators Thomas crawled out of the car and told the witness that "his legs were broken and that he stole the vehicle because he needed a ride to work. He then asked the witness for a gun to kill himself."

The report also states that Thomas "increased speed and drove recklessly when complainant Mariela began yelling at him."

Thomas claimed he was driving in excess of 200 miles per hour at the time of impact.

"He said he was going 260 miles per hour. There's no way," said FOX 4 Reporter Alex Boyer.

"Yeah, that, I'm not sure of" Carr said. "That's part of the ongoing investigation."

"I can't even imagine the feeling she had, the terror, the fright, just all the emotions she had at the same time," Diaz said. "Everything going on at once is overwhelming."

Thomas was taken to the hospital to be treated and then was booked into the Dallas County Jail. He’s charged with murder and theft.

Dallas police say the case is not considered a carjacking since the keys were in the ignition, the doors were unlocked and Thomas did not threaten Mariela to get access to the car.