Driver in Crash That Killed Wash U Professor Was Drunk, High

Kyle Weeks, the driver in a wrong way crash that killed Washington University professor Melanie Michailidis, was drunk and high when he drove the wrong way on Ladue Road.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that toxicology reports confirm that Weeks, 25, of Olivette, was drunk and high on marijuana, when he passed a car on Ladue Road about 8:50 p.m. Feb. 1. He struck Michalidis head on.

Ladue Police Chief Rich Wooten told Patch at the time of the crash that Week's 2007 Ford Focus was westbound on Ladue Road at Gouverneur Lane when it passed another vehicle and struck a 2004 Volkswagon Jetta, driven by Melanie Michailidis, 46, of St. Louis, which was eastbound.

Weeks and Michailidis were pronounced dead at the scene. Joseph Jacob, 41 of San Francisco, CA, who was a passenger in the eastbound vehicle, was taken to Mercy Hospital St. Louis where he later died.

Authorities say there were no passengers in the westbound vehicle.

Michailidis was the Korff Post-doctoral Fellow in Islamic Art in the Department of Art History and Archaeology, in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University. She held a BA from the University of Tennessee, and an MA from the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, where she began her studies in Islamic Art.

The Post also reports that Michailidis' mother has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Weeks' estate in St. Louis County Circuit Court seeking $25,000 or more.

See our previous coverage:

• Washington University Faculty Member Killed In Ladue Car Accident
• Update: Wash U Issues Statement on Death of Melanie Michailidis
• Wash U Flag at Half Staff for Melanie Michailidis