Stolen Jeep’s owner: Officer’s life changed and ‘a woman’s gone’

When Briauna Ball reported to police that her Jeep was stolen, she said she knew the vehicle would be damaged.

She had no idea it would result in a high-speed police chase that ended with the death of a local Realtor killed when her vehicle was struck by an officer’s cruiser.

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“I already knew the car was going to get wrecked,” said Ball, a Harrison Twp. resident. “ I already knew it. That’s the main thing that happens when a car get stolen.”

“But I didn’t know that a woman died in the midst of it….it’s crazy,” Ball added. “How someone can just steal a car – a police officer’s life is now affected by it, a woman’s gone. And now we don’t have a vehicle — but that’s the least of the worries out of all of it.”

Mary Taulbee of Lebanon was a passenger in a car not involved in the chase. She died after a collision with a Moraine police cruiser driven by Officer Matt Barrie on Tuesday evening on Ohio 741 in Miami Twp.

Ball had notified dispatchers of her stolen Jeep and was tracking its location on GPS. The information was relayed to Moraine police.

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Alyssa Irwin Debraux was arrested, booked into jail, and police said she is awaiting charges for the Jeep theft.

Authorities said Irwin Debraux fled from Barrie, prompting the chase that led to the death of Taulbee, a Realtor who had worked in Dayton, Englewood, Lebanon, Miamisburg, Springboro and Washington Twp.

Miami Twp. police said Irwin Debraux flipped Ball’s Jeep on Ohio 741 in an escape attempt. She remains in the Montgomery County Jail on $100,000 bond, according to jail records.

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