Cedar Rapids woman charged with vehicular homicide

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Cedar Rapids woman has been arrested on charges of homicide by vehicle and operating under the influence after a fatal crash that happened in December, according to the Linn County Sheriff’s Office.

Katie Austin-Karkow, 32, was arrested Friday and accused of causing the death of Yoseph Wendafresh Abera, 18, of Somerset, N.J., on Dec. 27, 2024, by crashing into him while driving on the wrong side of the road.

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According to a criminal complaint, Austin-Karkow was driving a 2010 Honda CRV south in the northbound lane of Highway 13 near Travis Road east of Cedar Rapids when she crashed into a 2003 Saturn that had three occupants. The crash happened just before 10 p.m. Dec. 27. One of the occupants, Abera, was thrown from the Saturn onto the road, where he was hit by a passing semi-trailer truck and dragged almost 300 feet.

Abera was pronounced dead at the scene. The other two occupants of the Saturn were taken to the hospital with serious, but non life-threatening injuries.

Austin-Karkow also was taken to the hospital with injuries that a sheriff’s news release at the time of the crash described as life-threatening. Investigators obtained a search warrant for an urine test on Austin-Karkow, which was administered at 2:24 a.m. Dec. 28, and showed a blood alcohol content level of 0.142. The legal limit for driving in Iowa is 0.08.

Austin-Karkow had her first appearance in court Saturday and was being held in the Linn County Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bail.

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