A West Virginia man was detained Friday following a single-vehicle rollover mishap in Greenbrier County that injured his mother, who reportedly told investigators she feared for her life at the time, according to sheriff’s deputies.
Deputies from the Greenbrier County Sheriff’s Department responded to a 911 call around 3 p.m. reporting an overturned vehicle with a passenger trapped inside on Pocahontas Trail/Route 92, approximately 21 miles north of White Sulphur Springs.
According to the responding deputy who filed the criminal complaint, the vehicle was driven by 38-year-old Michael Deutchman, who claimed to have lost control owing to wet roads.
According to the complaint, the passenger, his mother, told first responders and deputies that her son was driving erratically and making threats against her prior to the incident.
The passenger reported that she was attempting to leave her son’s home on foot with her luggage when Deutchman picked her up. She claimed she requested him to stop the vehicle several times, but he refused. Deutchman allegedly warned her, “They will never find your body,” before accelerating and eventually crashing the vehicle.
First responders observed that the woman was visibly afraid of her son and reported threats and coercion to officers on the scene. She was taken to Greenbrier Valley Medical Center for an evaluation of her injuries from the collision.
A witness heading southbound on Route 92 informed deputies that he saw the vehicle speeding and later saw it flipped along the roadside.
Deutchman was arrested on the scene and sent to Greenbrier Valley Medical Center for medical assessment and a court-ordered blood draw. According to the report, deputies located what appeared to be freshly smoked marijuana inside the vehicle.
Deutchman faces allegations of dangerous driving, domestic abuse, drug possession, and kidnapping. The investigation is underway.
Deutchman is currently at the Southern Regional Jail.
