3 UNNAMED CHILDREN - 5 and 4 yo and 7 months - (6/14) / Charged: Ex boyfriend, Kyle David Thompson - Louisville, KY

Police: 3 children in critical condition after Hardin County crash

UPDATED 6:58 PM EDT Jun 04, 2014


Hardin County police said a fatal head-on crash Tuesday night on the Joe Prather Highway happened after police attempted to pull over a kidnapping suspect.


Police said just after 10 p.m. Tuesday they got a call from a woman saying she and her three children were kidnapped at knifepoint by her ex-boyfriend, Kyle David Thompson.

She told police he forced her to drive along Wooldridge Ferry Road, but she stopped and jumped out of the vehicle near the home of one of her children's fathers.

The woman told officers she ran to get help and Thompson jumped into the driver's seat and took off with the children.

Kentucky State Police responded to the area and spotted the van as it drove by again.

When an officer tried to stop the van, police said Thompson took off and turned onto Joe Prather Highway and right into the path of 22-year-old Ashlee Berry.

"She was totally an innocent bystander in this case, to our knowledge. She was just headed back to her residence in Northern Hardin County. It's just very sad," said KSP Trooper Jeff Gregory.

Police said Thompson hit Berry's car head on and her vehicle rolled down an embankment. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Thompson suffered serious injuries in the crash and was taken to University Hospital under heavy security.

The three children -- ages 5 years, 4 years and 7 months -- were airlifted to Kosair Children's Hospital and are in critical condition.

The road reopened Wednesday morning, after being closed for 11 hours.

Thompson was arrested on an active warrant for failure to comply with the sex offender registry and a probation violation from Hardin County in 2010 for another kidnapping.

Berry worked at the Troll Pub Under the Bridge restaurant in downtown Louisville. She recently moved from Las Vegas to marry her sweetheart who is a soldier at Fort Knox. They were set to be married in about a month.

HARDIN COUNTY, Ky. —