ATLANTA -- A judge denied bond Thursday afternoon for the woman who police said confessed to the fatal hit-and-run crash that killed five people on Easter Sunday.Aimee Michael, 22, was arrested and charged with five counts of vehicular homicide and hit and run overnight after police found the BMW that they believed was involved in the wreck on Camp Creek Parkway.
Michael, in handcuffs and clad in a blue Fulton County scrub suit, sat quietly as Judge James Altman read the charges against her. Altman denied bond because Michael had nearly two weeks to turn herself in but did not.
"While this has been in the news with them looking for the car, she has done absolutely nothing to fulfill those responsibilities," said Altman.
Acting on a tip, SWAT officers converged on a home in south Fulton and impounded the vehicle in the driveway. Police spokeswoman Sgt. Melissa Parker said officers went into the home but found no one there.
According to Fulton County police, the Michael’s family sent her out Easter Sunday to get cake and ice cream.
That's when, police say, Michael's BMW collided with a Mercedes sending the Mercedes into oncoming traffic.
The Mercedes hit a Volkswagen head on.
Police said instead of stopping, Michael drove her wrecked BMW back home and parked it in the garage.
She told her family she had a headache and went to her room.
For two days, the BMW sat in the garage.
Michael's mother and grandmother told police they don't enter the house through the garage, so they didn't realize it was wrecked until two days after the wreck.
Police said that's when Michael broke down and told her family what happened.
At that point, investigators say, the family did not go to police.
Her mother and grandmother apparently knew about Michael's involvement for at least eight days, but did not come forward.
Instead, someone from the family had the car repaired.
Robert and Delisia Carter, their newborn son, and Delisia Carter's 9-year-old daughter, Kayla, died in the chain-reaction crash near Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Also killed was Morgan Johnson, 6, whose mother, Tracy Johnson, 43, of Atlanta was injured.
John Mattox, who said he's a cousin of Tracy Johnson, said he needed to be in the courtroom as Michael faced her fate.
"I wanted to see to make sure she didn't get bond so I can feel happy about it," said Mattox.
Michael's relatives, clearly shaken from the ordeal, did not want to talk.
Will Rumph didn't know his neighbor by name, but he often saw her driving to and from her house.
He said at a recent neighborhood association meeting, a police officer attended.
"They had a flyer and they said they were looking out for this 1995 gold BMW,” said Rumph.
At the time that didn't register.
Police won't say yet whether they're going after the mechanic or Michael’s mother and grandmother.
That's up to Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard and people at his office tell CBS Atlanta News he's looking into it.
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Previous Stories:
April 16, 2009: Hit And Run Survivor Improving
April 13, 2009: Five Die In Accident, Driver Sought
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