{"id":47904,"date":"2021-03-18T18:14:20","date_gmt":"2021-03-19T00:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/texas-suspect-in-head-on-crash-goes-dark-on-investigators\/"},"modified":"2021-03-19T00:14:20","modified_gmt":"2021-03-19T00:14:20","slug":"texas-suspect-in-head-on-crash-goes-dark-on-investigators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/texas-suspect-in-head-on-crash-goes-dark-on-investigators\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas suspect in head-on crash goes dark on investigators"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A black Mustang driven by Anthony Giovanni Behmardi crossed into the westbound lane in the 21600 block of U.S. Highway 160 and struck an oncoming vehicle March 8.<\/span>Courtesy of David Torres<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A 27-year-old Texas man suspected of drunken driving and causing a head-on crash earlier this month is not responding to investigators after abruptly leaving Mercy Regional Medical Center\u2019s intensive care unit one day after the collision.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne day he\u2019s in ICU, and the next day he wasn\u2019t even in the hospital,\u201d said Durango Police Cmdr. Ray Shupe, \u201cwhich was kind of unusual.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anthony Giovanni Behmardi of Plano, Texas, is suspected of driving drunk around 5 p.m. March 8 after he crossed into the westbound lane of U.S. Highway 160 in west Durango, striking an oncoming vehicle.<\/p>\n

Behmardi was headed east in a black Mustang<\/a>, investigators said. The crash occurred in front of the Wapiti Lodge at 21625 U.S. Highway 160, a busy corridor near western city limits.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Toyota Tacoma was struck in a head-on crash March 8 in the 21600 block of U.S. Highway 160 earlier this month. Two passengers suffered injuries.<\/span>Courtesy of David Torres<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Behmardi struck a Toyota Tacoma occupied by two Durango residents: the driver, Daisy Dickson, 35, and a passenger, Robert Okun, 42.<\/p>\n

Shupe said Okun\u2019s injuries were thought to be serious, and he was also taken to Mercy, but those injuries did not turn out to be as serious as thought at the scene.<\/p>\n

Behmardi had to be extracted from his car and was taken to Mercy\u2019s ICU with serious injuries.<\/p>\n

Shupe said an investigating officer went to interview Behmardi at Mercy the next day, March 9, and he was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had already checked out,\u201d Shupe said.<\/p>\n

Shupe said Mercy officials will not discuss the circumstances of Behmardi\u2019s departure with investigators, citing patient privacy laws.<\/p>\n

The Durango Police Department has tried to call and text Behmardi, but he has not responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made repeated attempts to contact him for an interview without success,\u201d Shupe said.<\/p>\n

Now, police will wait for blood test results to come back, Shupe said, which could take about 30 days. If there\u2019s probable cause, such as alcohol levels, police will issue a warrant, which would force Behmardi to come back to Durango.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, we\u2019ll work through the criminal justice process to get a warrant if we can\u2019t get a hold of him,\u201d Shupe said.<\/p>\n

Attempts to reach Behmardi on Thursday were not successful.<\/p>\n

Okun, speaking to The Durango Herald<\/em> on Thursday, said he remembered a loud crash just before impact, but then could not recall what happened next.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, I don\u2019t remember any of it,\u201d Okun said. \u201cI remember hearing the crash, and that\u2019s about it. I never saw it coming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okun was released from Mercy around 10 p.m. the day of the crash. He believes he had a concussion, and he felt foggy, had a headache and was sore for days afterward.<\/p>\n

Dickson did not suffer serious injuries, Durango police said. Okun said Dickson was also feeling sore after the crash.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to know how he (Behmardi) left town without anyone noticing,\u201d Okun said. \u201cI\u2019m a little confused by that. Hopefully, they get to the bottom of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Okun said the crash could have been a lot worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s scary,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m more hesitant driving around now.\u201d<\/p>\n

jromeo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anthony Giovanni Behmardi abruptly left hospital one day after collision<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[168,480,1065,13,28,993,29,254],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-47904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-crime","tag-dui","tag-durango-police-department","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-investigation","tag-newsletter","tag-road-crash"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47904","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47904"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47904\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47904"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47904"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47904"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=47904"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}