Truck driver who killed four with Livingston County ties charged with vehicular homicide in Ohio
The truck driver who veered across a highway median in his tractor-trailer Christmas Eve morning and struck two vehicles carrying people with Livingston County ties has been charged with vehicular homicide in connection with their deaths.
Dayren Rocubert, 29, of Hialeah, Florida, was arraigned Tuesday in Sidney Municipal Court in Shelby County, Ohio, with five counts of criminal misdemeanor vehicular homicide because Karen Marie Boehne, one of the victims, was pregnant.
Kimberly Ann Siegrist, 63; her daughters, Lauren Marie Hahn, 32, and Karen Boehne, 33, and Karen's husband Jeremy David Ralph Boehne, 32, were killed in the crash. The truck driver was not severely injured.
Not guilty pleas were entered on his behalf. The judge set bond at $25,000 cash or surety for each of the five counts. Court records indicate he posted bond.
According to court records, the charges are "drug or alcohol" related. A pretrial conference is scheduled for 9:45 a.m. Jan. 30.
"It's a human tragedy, what happened. It's awful.," Rocubert's attorney Christopher Bucio said. "Any time at the holidays and the inclement weather, the No. 1 fear that anybody has is something like that and there was four people involved and I understand that there was an unborn child. No words can describe the loss and the tragedy.
"My client's heart, his family's heart goes out to all of those involved and the loss of all the family, as well as myself on behalf of my client, feel the same way. It's just awful weather that day and it was kind of a chain reaction of things that happened with the vehicles and it's just a tragedy," he said.
According to police, Rocubert's tractor-trailer was northbound Interstate 75 when it went through the median Dec. 24 and struck a GMC Terrain and a Ford F-150 carrying the four family members.
Funerals for the four are set for Sunday afternoon at McCabe Funeral Home, 31950 W. 12 Mile Road in Farmington Hills. The service will be at 5 p.m. for Jeremy and Karen Boehne. Hahn and Siegrist's funeral service will be at 7 p.m. at the same location.
Amrit Harvey, who was a collegue of Siegrist's ex-husband, David Hahn, set up a GoFundMe account to help the family.
"No parent should ever have to go through tragedy of losing their children or grandchild," Harvey said.
Kappa Beta Alumnae also set up a GoFundMe account to help Karen Boehne and her family.
Lauren Hahn and Karen Boehne, along with Jeremy Boehne, all were graduates of Hartland High School.
Hahn graduated from Hartland High School in 2009 and went on to Madonna University in Livonia. She worked as a customer service manager at Alpha USA in Dexter.
Karen and her husband Jeremy were married on June 4, 2022, and had been together for 10 years.
Karen Boehne was a 2007 graduate of Hartland. She went onto attend Grand Valley State University in Allendale, completing her biomedical science degree in 2012. She worked with Opus IVS in Dexter as director of Human Resources & Recruiting.
According to his obituary, Jeremy Boehne grew up in Livingston County, attending Our Savior Evangelical Lutheran Church and playing basketball soccer and participating in track at HHS. He worked in the medical gas industry.
Jeremy Boehne is survived by his mother Mary Boehne and father David (Kathy) Boehne, as well as siblings Joy Boehne, Maria Santure, Erica Timmons and Brian Boehne.
Siegrist, in addition to being the mother of Karen and Lauren, also was the mother to Amy (Jim) Ross. She also had three grandchildren.
According to her obituary, she belonged to St. Mary Magdalene Catholic Church in Brighton and liked working with her church and volunteering. She was also adventurous and loved trying new things.
Livingston Daily reporter Patricia Alvord can be reached at palvord@livingstondaily.com.
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Ohio crash deaths result in charges for Florida truck driver
