One of two people killed in a crash in Hamilton Thursday morning may have been the victim of an assault and abduction.
Waterloo Regional Police were chasing the car after getting word of the possible abduction. The Special Investigations Unit is now investigating the circumstances around the deadly incident.
Waterloo Regional Police Insp. Mike Haffner said that police were called to King Street East in Cambridge, Ont. at 9:30 a.m. Thursday for a report of a possible abduction and assault of a female.
Officers found a vehicle driven by a male and carrying a female passenger.
“We wanted to speak to the two people inside because we thought she had been abducted,” Haffner told CTV News Toronto.
But the driver failed to stop for police and so officers began a pursuit.
About 25 minutes later, after a sustained chase in the eastbound lanes of Highway 401 past Guelph, the suspect vehicle, identified as a red Pontiac G6, collided head-on with a transport truck on Highway 6 near Mountsberg Road in the area of Freelton, a rural part of Hamilton.
Both occupants of the vehicle were pronounced dead at the scene. One of the occupants was ejected from the vehicle.
The driver of the truck was not injured. He remained at the scene to speak to investigators.
Haffner said no police officers were injured in the chase.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday afternoon, SIU spokesperson Monica Hudon would not confirm if the woman killed in the crash was the subject of the abduction investigation.
Highway 6 is closed in both directions between Campbellville Road and Concession 10 while police investigate, the OPP says.
The closure is expected to last well into the evening.
The SIU is called to investigate any interaction between an Ontario police officer and a member of the public that results in death, serious injury or an allegation of sexual assault.
