12-year-old dies in rollover crash, mother investigated for DUI and booked for vehicular homicide
Apr 29, 2025, 2:28 PM
An Auburn police unit. (Photo: Charlie Harger, KIRO Newsradio)
(Photo: Charlie Harger, KIRO Newsradio)
AUBURN, Wash. — An Auburn mother has been charged with vehicular homicide after investigators say she allegedly drove under the influence and flipped her car.
Her 12-year-old son, who was not wearing a seatbelt at the time, was thrown from the vehicle and killed.
The crash happened on SE 416th Street, located between Enumclaw and Auburn, around 1:43 a.m. on April 27.
The car hit a ditch, and the impact of it sent it 150 feet into the air. The car rolled over at least once, and the pre-teen was tossed from the vehicle.
The driver, 38-year-old Savannah Hopper, was arrested.
While talking with investigators, she said that her son’s girlfriend was driving at the time of the crash, but she and her son were the only two at the scene and she did not provide a name for the supposed girlfriend.
Investigators said the seat was adjusted to fit Hopper’s height and that she was the registered owner for the vehicle.
According to investigators, no one was wearing a seat belt and an empty bottle of vodka was found in the debris of the wreckage.
Hopper was booked into King County Jail for vehicular homicide.
Results of her blood alcohol testing are pending. More charges could be filed.
This afternoon there was a first appearance for Savannah Lynn Hopper, who was arrested Sunday in a vehicular homicide investigation.
The first appearance document written by the King County Sheriff’s Office and presented in court this afternoon by the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office is attached – available because the Court found probable cause for vehicular homicide.
The defendant was medically unavailable for court, so bail was not addressed. She remains in custody.
A first appearance hearing following an arrest is not the same as what’s required by law for a felony charging decision, which has a higher burden of proof. In all types of cases, it is routinely in the days after a first appearance hearing that police investigators send a case referral to prosecutors for a charging decision.
King County prosecutors do not have that felony case referral from the Sheriff’s Office now, but anticipate getting that case referral from Sheriff’s Office investigators for a charging decision.
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