Updated: Monday, Jan. 5
Olathe Police have identified the two people killed in a crash near downtown Olathe on Saturday night.
In an updated statement, Olathe Police Sgt. John Moncayo identified the victims as Hayden Doherty, 16, of Overland Park, and Addison Askew, 17, of Olathe.
Moncayo said Doherty was driving the vehicle and Askew was a passenger.
Original story continues below:
Two people were killed in a fiery crash just north of downtown Olathe on Saturday night.
Olathe Police said they received an iPhone crash notification at 10:39 p.m., reporting a crash in the area of Northgate Street and East Harold Street.
That location is a few blocks north of where Northgate turns into Kansas Avenue and runs by the Johnson County Courthouse.
Crash notifications can be enabled by iPhone users to alert local authorities when a device detects a possible severe crash.
Sgt. John Moncayo, an Olathe PD spokesperson, said arriving officers found that a passenger vehicle had struck a tree and caught fire.
Recorded radio traffic from arriving firefighters reported a vehicle in the median that was “fully involved” in flames.
“Once the fire was extinguished, the bodies of two individuals were found inside,” Moncayo said. “There does not appear to be any signs of criminal activity, and the identification of the deceased occupants is pending an autopsy.”
Officers from the department’s traffic unit worked into the early morning hours of Sunday to document the crash scene.
Skid marks on the pavement indicate the vehicle was traveling northbound on Northgate just before crashing into the median. Debris from the impact was strewn across all lanes of the street.
Firefighters returned to the scene at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday to recover the remains of the deceased occupants from the mangled car. It took more than 90 minutes to extricate both people from the wreckage.
Northgate was closed from Harold to Mulberry until around 4 a.m.
Police continue to investigate and ask anyone with information to contact them at 913-971-6363 or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477.
