Orofino teen reported missing after prom dies in car crash

The 17-year-old Orofino teenager who ran away after his prom earlier this week died Wednesday afternoon after a car crash on Sunny Side Bench Road near Lenore, Idaho.

A nursing supervisor at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston confirmed that Kristian Branden Perez died there on Wednesday.

The Nez Perce County Sheriff’s Office reported that they responded to a “possible suicidal subject” driving on Sunny Side Bench Road shortly after 2 p.m. Wednesday. The driver lost control and rolled down an embankment, according to a news release. He had to be extricated from the car and was taken to the hospital by Life Flight.

Perez was reported missing by his mother after he checked out of his prom shortly after 9:30 p.m. Friday and never returned home.

He was found in a home in Orofino early Tuesday morning and was facing charges of being a runaway. The man who lived in the home where Perez was found, 26-year-old Tyson Imel, was arrested for providing shelter for a runaway child, a misdemeanor.