Police still looking into weekend crash

No charges have been filed in connection with the Feb. 13 automobile crash that killed a Chaffee, Mo., woman and critically injured three others, but Cape Girardeau County Prosecuting Attorney Morley Swingle said an investigation is continuing.

In addition, the driver investigators say may be responsible was recently charged in Perry County with unrelated traffic offenses, including a class D felony for leaving the scene of an accident.

Driver Michael W. Berry, 25, of Perryville crashed his passenger car head-on into the northbound vehicle of Rebecca Larkin, 36, and her husband, the Rev. Darren Larkin, 39, pastor of the First Assembly of God Church in Chaffee.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Berry improperly attempted to pass an 18-wheel truck on Highway 25. Citations are pending.

The couple were traveling to a church Valentine's Day dinner in Jackson. Rebecca Larkin was pronounced dead at the scene. Darren Larkin was first flown by helicopter to St. Francis Medical Center, then taken to St. Louis University Hospital. According to a church member, he is in a body cast with numerous broken bones.

Berry and passenger Michael Howe, 20, of Cape Girardeau, were both taken by helicopter to St. Francis Medical Center with serious injuries.

Previous charges

Perry County prosecutors charged Berry this month with numerous unrelated traffic offenses, including driving while revoked, failure to drive on the right side of the road, failure to maintain financial responsibility, speeding and failure to use a seatbelt.

Berry pleaded guilty in Perry County in September to speeding and was fined $270. In 1996, he pleaded guilty to four felony counts of tampering with a motor vehicle and was sentenced to five years in prison. That same year, he also pleaded guilty to forcible rape and was sentenced to seven years in prison.