DETROIT – A Sterling Heights woman who led police on a wild chase through Detroit's east side and the streets of Hamtramck for about 25 miles before being tackled while trying to climb a fence pled guilty Thursday.
Valerie Mathews, 28, pled guilty to third-degree fleeing and eluding.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Woman tackled, arrested after police chase on Detroit's east side
Police chased the dark blue van April 4 across yards and through tight neighborhood streets. The driver eluded police vehicles until finally bailing on foot near I-75 and Caniff in Hamtramck.
She did not get far on foot as Hamtramck police officer Nikole Jabour tackled her against a fence. Mathews was arrested and charged.
VIDEO: Woman tackled by officers after police chase
Mathews under investigation for alleged role in teen's death
Local 4 learned Mathews was being investigated for her alleged role in the death of a 19-year-old Port Huron woman. Meagan Margarette Williams' body had been dumped in the lot days earlier as her family frantically searched for their missing daughter.
Sources told Local 4 that Williams might have been saved if the person who dumped her body had taken to her a hospital or police station. But instead, police suspect Mathews dumped Williams' body and ran.
Mathews calls herself "VL BADD." Sources said Mathews texted her friends that she had dumped the teen's body. Word eventually got back to Sterling Heights investigators. When they found Mathews, she led them to the body, sources said.
Mathews has been under investigation for the dumping of Williams' body ever since, and that's why she desperately tried to escape from police officers earlier this week, sources said.
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