Inside spoiled teen car crash 'killer' and his teacher mom's bizarre relationship

A Michigan mother expressed she was afraid of her troubled son months before he totaled her BMW in a 100mph crash that killed an 18-year-old star swimmer.

Kiernan Tague, 17, is charged with the second-degree murder of his friend Flynn MacKrell after he lost control of his mother's BMW in Grosse Pointe on the night of November 17, 2023. 

Investigators have since revealed that Kiernan was no stranger to police, having had had at least 22 contacts with authorities since 2018, as reported by the Detroit Free Press. 

On several times police visited Kiernan's home after his mother Elizabeth Puleo-Tague, a campus minister at a Jesuit high school, reported he was out of control and 'breaking things in the house.'

Kiernan's most recent contact with cops before the fatal crash came on August 30, 2023, when Elizabeth called police 'because Kiernan was yelling and throwing items within the house because his mother refused to get him an American Express Gold Card.'

Kiernan Tague, 17, is charged with second-degree murder of his friend and neighbor Flynn MacKrell after he lost control of his mother's BMW in Grosse Pointe last year

Elizabeth Puleo-Tague is accused of failing to take reasonable actions to prevent her child from hurting others after becoming aware of his speeding, as evidenced in several texts

In 2020, police responded to a call from the mom after she alleged her son 'had just assaulted her and fled the area,' cops wrote.

The report goes on state how the incident occurred - when Kiernan was being picked up at his friend's house and became angry at his mother.

'While in the front seat, Kiernan turned around and began punching his mother (who was in the back seat) and even bit her on her hand,' an officer wrote.

Kiernan, in turn, was arrested for domestic violence and kept briefly at the Wayne County youth home.

In November of last year, days before the crash, another fight would break out between the two, this time at home, during which Kiernan broke a table after his mom refused to let him use one of her two cars.

Kiernan's passenger was 18-year-old college freshman Flynn MacKrell, a standout swimmer  whose death was deemed a homicide. His parents, Thad MacKrell and Anne Vanker and, are seeking to use the messages to show how the suspect's mother was partially responsible

Kiernan had been going over 100 miles an hour in a 25-mile-an-hour zone when he crashed his mother's brand-new BMW X3 M on November 17, 2023

'I simply asked you to take your car... yet you refused. Now I'm running late and we have a broken table,' Kiernantexted on Nov. 3, 2023, according to the report viewed by the Free Press.

Citing the 'extensive' text messages between the two compiled during this effort, one Grosse Pointe City investigator wrote: 'There was much conversation about Kiernan taking/using his mother's credit card without permission, being out during overnight hours without permission, and about Kiernan's extensive reckless driving habits.'

The investigator added: 'The messages between the two suggest that Kiernan's mother has little to no control over Kiernan.

'Kiernan regularly drove recklessly and took/used his mother's credit cards without permission, despite his mother's repeated orders not to.'

But the mother and son also seemed to have a cordial relationship at times - in one October, 2023, exchange, Elizabeth asked her then-16-year-old son to buy wine for her.

The message read: 'Will you pick up a bottle of wine?? … Please!' to which Kiernan replied, 'Sure.'

A week later, just days before the fatal crash that killed Flynn, Kiernan's mother sent him a screenshot of a website laying out the penalties for having a fake ID.

Flynn's parents, Anne Vanker and Thad Mackrell, claim the exchanges between Elizabeth and Kiernan show criminal liability on the mother's part.

Elizabeth is being investigated by police after text messages emerged showing she was aware of her son's speeding habit - which she had intimate knowledge of through a GPS app called Life360. 

Flynn's parents told the Free Press that Elizabeth should face criminal charges, with his devastated mother Anne stating: 'It's like she handed him an AR-15.'

Among the text messages, Elizabeth wrote to Kiernan on September 14, 2023, two months before the crash: 'Slow the f*** down right now!'

It was after the then 16-year-old had been caught traveling 123mph in the family's Audi coupe.

'I have screen shots of you... doing 123 mph... It scares me to my bone,' read another.

Kiernan Tague, the driver who survived the catastrophic high-speed crash, has had at least 22 documented contacts with the police since 2018

Elizabeth, the campus minister at University of Detroit Jesuit High School, bought herself a brand-new BMW weeks after sending those texts that she proceeded to give her son access to, despite it being able to reach speeds of 177mph. Stock of a BMW X3 M seen above

The Tague home in Grosse Pointe, Michigan, is pictured above 

Flynn's parents, Anne Vanker and Thad Mackrell, are seeking to use the messages to show how Elizabeth failed to take reasonable actions to prevent her child from hurting others.

They wrote in a letter to local prosecutors: '[Kiernan] was speeding over and over, and mom knew it'.

Not only that, but Elizabeth, the campus minister at University of Detroit Jesuit High School, bought herself a brand-new BMW weeks after sending those texts that she proceeded to give her son access to, despite it being able to reach speeds of 177mph.

Vanker and her husband are now using the exchanges between the mother and son as proof Elizabeth knew for months her son was driving recklessly, but failed to do anything about it.

Speaking to the Free Press, she brought up how Elizabeth also has a 2015 Subaru Forrester, but continued to allow her son to drive the much more powerful Audi and then BMW even after warning him about what he was doing.

Elizabeth is the campus minister at University of Detroit Jesuit High School

The purchase of the BMW and leaving the keys for him to freely take, however, was the worst offense, she said, comparing the prospect to handing the unruly teen a loaded assault rifle.

'She was sitting on a ticking time bomb,' Vanker told the paper, eight months after her son's death.

'She knows he's out of control, yet she basically gets him a weapon - it's like she handed him an AR-15.' 

DailyMail.com has reached out to University of Detroit Jesuit High School for comment on this story.