Man charged in crash that killed girlfriend

A Pennsylvania man is facing criminal charges in the crash that killed his girlfriend near the Jennings-Ripley county line in Indiana earlier this month.

Kevin Bell, 39, of Dover, Pa., was charged with driving while suspended causing death, leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, failure to report a dead body, driving while suspended and false informing, Indiana court records show. He was also wanted on a warrant out of Pennsylvania.

Indiana State Police said that the investigation was turned over to the Jennings County Prosecutor’s Office for review earlier this week. As a result, a warrant was issued Wednesday for Bell. He has not yet been relocated or rearrested.

Bell was driving a Ford Explorer with girlfriend Nikki Reed, 37, of Seymour, Ind., in the passenger seat on Sept. 17 when he went down an embankment and crashed head-on into a tree along U.S. Route 50. Reed died and Bell was trapped for two days, police said.

Indiana State Police located Reed and the wreckage after Bell, who suffered leg injuries, crawled up to the road and hailed a passerby to call 9-1-1.

According to a probable-cause affidavit filed in Jennings Circuit Court on Tuesday, Bell is facing charges because he failed to contact police to report the fatality despite having cell phone access and a signal. The affidavit also states that Bell misinformed officers during the early stages of the investigation because he feared being arrested on his warrant in Pennsylvania.

According to court records, Indiana State Police learned of Reed's disappearance on Sept. 18 after her ex-husband called police and said she hadn't arrived at her son's birthday party the previous day. Before leaving for Pennsylvania, Reed told family members she planned to drive to pick up Bell and take him to the party in Seymour.

Both Reed and Bell were entered into the national missing person's database on Sept. 20, records show. On the same day, Reed's ex-husband received an emailed screenshot of a text message from Bell's cell phone that said "car wreck."

As officers were following the lead, a different Indiana State Police trooper responded to the 8600 block of U.S. Route 50 in Jennings County and found Bell with various personal belongings and a broken leg. He did not initially mention the crash or the fact that Bell was still in the vehicle, records show.

Bell was transferred to St. Vincent Jennings Hospital in nearby North Vernon, Ind., where he was interviewed by police, records show. He told authorities he was driving and crashed after Reed removed her seatbelt to rub his body.

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He sat in the car for approximately 48 hours, drinking water and sipping Gatorade, records show. He claimed a broken leg limited his mobility and he couldn't find his or Reed's phone to call anyone.

Two days later, he crawled out of the back of the vehicle where he found his phone face down on the ground, records show. He said it had 2 percent battery, so he texted his boss before it died. He said he didn't know why he didn't call 9-1-1 but was unable to charge the phone because it was broken.

Officers discovered that Bell had a warrant for failure to appear for harassing communication, records show. The charge was non-extraditable but possibly contributed to his evasiveness, police said.

Gloria Bell, Kevin's mother, told the York Daily Record that Bell is currently in a hospital in Indianapolis where he will stay for approximately two weeks for surgery to take pins out pins his broken leg. She said she found out about the criminal charges online but did not indicate whether her son knows.

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The Jennings County Coroner's Office determined Reed died from a broken neck and blunt force trauma suffered during the crash.

Brooklyn Reed, her daughter, created a page on You Caring, a crowdfunding website, in order to raise money for her mother's funeral expenses. As of Wednesday afternoon, the effort had raised roughly $2,500 of its $5,000 goal.

Reporter Justin Sayers can be reached at 502-582-4252 or jsayers@gannett.com.