{"id":265381,"date":"2026-08-14T16:06:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265381\/"},"modified":"2026-08-14T16:06:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:06:29","slug":"44-year-old-woman-dies-allentown-man-is-held-after-high-speed-crash-authorities-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/265381\/","title":{"rendered":"44-year-old woman dies, Allentown man is held after high-speed crash, authorities say"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 44-year-old woman died of her injuries from a high-speed crash Wednesday in Allentown<\/a>, Lehigh County Coroner Daniel Buglio said Thursday.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania State Police on Thursday identified the driver accused of causing the crash as a 24-year-old Allentown man.<\/p>\n

Kevin Abdiel Santiago was ordered held Thursday on charges from an incident July 12 in Allen Township<\/a>, according to state police and court records.<\/p>\n

Authorities were continuing to investigate the crash.<\/p>\n

Santiago is charged with felony burglary and 15 counts each of receiving stolen property and prohibited possession of a firearm, according to police. <\/p>\n

A district judge denied Santiago bail because he is listed as a fugitive from New York in connection with a homicide case, according to court documents. <\/p>\n

A preliminary hearing is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 6, where prosecutors must show they have enough evidence to warrant a trial in the burglary case.<\/p>\n

The crash occurred about 1:06 p.m. Wednesday at the intersection of North Sixth and Cedar streets, according to Pennsylvania State Police.<\/a><\/p>\n

Troopers said Santiago was driving a Chevrolet Suburban at a high rate of speed when he failed to stop at a posted stop sign and struck a Mercedes-Benz in the intersection. The impact caused the Mercedes-Benz to crash into a nearby home.<\/p>\n

Police said Santiago fled the scene on foot but was later apprehended and taken into custody by troopers.<\/p>\n

The driver of the Mercedes-Benz, identified by the Lehigh County Coroner\u2019s Office as Kandi Jo Heller, of Slatington, died from blunt force injuries. She was pronounced dead at 9:58 p.m. Wednesday at Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg<\/a> in Bethlehem. <\/p>\n

The coroner ruled her death an accident.<\/p>\n

A passenger in the Mercedes-Benz also injured and taken to an area hospital, police said. <\/p>\n

The crash remains under investigation by the Pennsylvania State Police Bethlehem Station Criminal Investigation Unit and Patrol Unit, with assistance from the Lehigh County District Attorney\u2019s Office; the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Allentown police and fire departments, and several specialized state police units.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 44-year-old woman died of her injuries from a high-speed crash Wednesday in Allentown, Lehigh County Coroner Daniel…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120],"class_list":["post-265381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}