On Sunday afternoon around 4:17pm, Ionia County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to the Ionia Wal-Mart to the Ionia Menards for separate reports of vehicle thefts that occurred in the parking lots. It was later determined that five subjects from the Lansing area had possibly stolen a vehicle from another jurisdiction and drove that vehicle to the Ionia Walmart parking lot where they stole a vechicle. Those subjects then went to the Ionia Menards and stole a second vehicle, leaving the area immediately afterward.

Clinton County Deputies advised that they had located the stolen vehicles and were in pursuit of the suspects. The chase continued through Clinton County and Eaton County until it eventually led back into Ionia County. One of the stolen vehicles was stopped after officers deployed spike strips to disable the vehicle.

The other vehicle, a 2020 Kia Forte, was pursued northbound on Sunfield Hwy, near Bippley Rd, where it lost control and left the roadway subsequently striking a tree. As a result of this crash, one female occupant from the Lansing area was pronounced dead at the scene. The other occupants of the vehicle were transported to Sparrow Hospital in Lansing for non-life-threatening injuries.

Names of those involved are being withheld at this time. This incident remains under investigation by the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office, Clinton County Sheriff’s Office and the Michigan State Police.

Assisting on scene were Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, Eaton County Sheriff's Office, Michigan State Police, Portland Police Department, Lake Odessa Police Department, Grand Ledge Police Department, Life EMS Ambulance service, Portland Ambulance, Sunfield Fire Department, Reed and Hoppes Towing and Central Dispatch from Ionia, Clinton, and Eaton Counties.