‘Affluenza’ Texas teen’s mom listed as missing, search on for truck

Posted on by Listify Me

(Reuters) – The mother of a Texas teenager whose defense in his fatal drunken-driving crash was “affluenza” has been declared a missing person as authorities search for her son, a sheriff said on Monday.

Tonya Couch, 48, may be with her son, Ethan, 18, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. Ethan Couch is being investigated for violating the probation imposed in the 2013 fatal crash.

Tonya Couch is listed as missing in U.S. national databases, the statement said. The sheriff’s office and U.S. marshals are searching for Tonya Couch’s missing truck, a black 2011 Ford F-150.

A sheriff’s spokesman said she may be in the company of a fugitive and should be detained if located by law enforcement.

“We certainly believe that they are together,” Sheriff Dee Anderson told reporters. “We are going to prosecute her as fully as we can if she helps him at all.”

After a trial two years ago, Ethan Couch was sentenced to 10 years probation in a juvenile court for killing four people in a drunken-driving crash.

A defense psychiatrist said Couch was suffering from “affluenza” and was so spoiled he could not tell right from wrong. The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize “affluenza” as an illness and Couch’s probation sparked outrage.

Police are checking reports that Couch may have left the United States when he went missing this month shortly after a video came out showing him at a beer-pong party, in a likely violation of his probation.

U.S. Marshals are offering a $5,000 reward in exchange for his whereabouts.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Bill Trott)