A woman suspected of killing another driver in a hit-and-run in Irvine last year was arrested on Thursday, July 3.
The collision occurred on May 9, 2024 around 4:30 p.m. near Culver Drive and Trabuco Road. Irvine police investigators determined that a Honda Civic turned right on a red light onto Culver Drive, forcing a Toyota Corolla already in the intersection to swerve. The Toyota struck the center median, a tree and a light pole before landing on its roof.
The Honda driver fled the scene, police said.
The driver of the Toyota, 67-year-old Irvine resident Allen Yangkaou Lee, died from his injuries.
Tips from the public led detectives to the abandoned Honda on a residential street in the Great Park neighborhood on May 15.
Inside the vehicle, investigators found documents belonging to 24-year-old Francis Guadalupe Tercero-Benavides.
“Without the help of the public caring about what is going on in their community, I don’t know if we would have ever found that car,” said department spokesperson Kyle Oldoerp.
Although detectives were able to identify the suspect, locating her proved difficult. Tercero-Benavides had reportedly moved multiple times across Orange County in the months following the crash, Oldoerp said. He described the search as a “cat and mouse game,” saying that despite surveillance at each new address, officers were unable to spot her until recently.
She was arrested Thursday morning in the 1600 block of Anaheim Boulevard on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter and felony hit-and-run.