S. Fulton neighbors stunned by hit-and-run arrest

The Michael family seemed like the type of people you would leave your child with, not the type who would cause and then cover up a crash with fatalities, south Fulton County neighbors said Thursday.

“I’m flabbergasted,” said Eddie Pressley, who lives down the street in the Walden Park community.

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John Spink/jspink@ajc.com

Aimee Michael listens to her lawyer, Scott Smith, after her arrest on Thursday.

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Aimee Allistaire Michael, 22, is charged with five counts of vehicular homicide in an April 12 accident and is in the Fulton County Jail without bond. Police say she caused a chain-reaction crash on Easter Sunday, killing five people. She then covered up the crash and hid from police, investigators said.

Michael was arrested early Thursday after an anonymous neighbor spotted the suspect vehicle at the Michael home on Ailey Avenue in south Fulton County.

“We are investigating all of the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident, including, but not limited to, any alleged concealment of the crime,” Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said.

Investigators said Michael was on an errand to pick up a cake for her mother when the crash occurred.

Michael lives in a four-bedroom house in the Walden Park subdivision off Fulton Industrial Boulevard.

She graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in April 2008 with a bachelor of science in psychology, a university spokesman said Thursday. It was unclear whether she was employed.

Her parents, Sheila B. and Robert S. Michael, bought the 3,000-square foot home in 2006, property records show.

Sheila Michael teaches second grade at Cascade Elementary School in Atlanta. Robert Michael retired from the military and working in Saudi Arabia as a military contractor for defense contractor Northrop Grumman, the family’s lawyer, W. Scott Smith said.

The couple also has a second daughter.

On Wednesday, police questioned Aimee Michael, her mother and grandmother about the accident.

Calls to the Michael home were not returned.

The Michaels’ neighborhood was quiet Thursday, but neighbors still had questions.

Will Rumph, who lives three doors from the family, said they were “down to earth.”

Rumph said he recently saw a flier, distributed from a neighborhood homeowners association meeting, describing the BMW suspected of triggering the accident.

“I thought, ‘Wow, that looks like my neighbor’s car,’” Rumph said. He returned home to find police activity in the neighborhood Wednesday night after a business trip. “I thought, ‘Oh, it couldn’t be.’ And then it was.”

He said he’d run into them from time to time in the neighborhood.

Pressley, who moved with his wife to Walden Park five years ago, described the subdivision with nice homes and meandering streets as quiet.

“We don’t see much disappointment here,” he said. “I don’t think this neighborhood has seen anything like this in its entire lifetime.”