A woman accused of leaving the scene of a traffic accident last month where an investigating Houston police officer was later killed has been charged with two felonies and is believed to have fled again — this time, to Mexico.

Houston police have issued a warrant for the arrest of Francisca Cortez, 28. Authorities said they believe she is the driver who struck two motorcyclists on Interstate 610 near Yale on May 29. While investigating that wreck, Officer Kevin Will was fatally struck by a suspected drunken driver.

In a probable cause affidavit filed Friday in Harris County, police revealed that Cortez's relatives have said she is in Mexico with her children. Court records also detail an effort in the hours after her crash to mislead authorities about her whereabouts and the location of her white Chevrolet Suburban during the time of the accident.

Motorcyclists dragged

Cortez is charged with two counts of failure to stop and render aid in an accident resulting in serious bodily injury. The wreck happened just as Luis Almendarez and Tracey Alexander entered the freeway on their bikes headed east around 2 a.m. After the men were hit from behind and thrown from their motorcycles, the SUV motorist "continued to drive, dragging the motorcycles approximately 1,000 feet before the vehicle came to rest on the shoulder of I-610," the complaint said.

On Monday, Almendarez was in fair condition at Ben Taub General Hospital, an upgrade from graver earlier reports that he was on life support. Alexander suffered from road rash, bruises and cuts.

Court documents allege that after hitting the bikers, the SUV driver got out and attempted to pull the motorcycles from under her vehicle, but got back in the Suburban and left the scene without giving any information.

In an interview with police, a man who saw the crash and called 911 said the SUV ran over one man before dragging the motorcycles "until she was not able to drive anymore." That witness, also a driver along I-610, made contact with the SUV driver and told her not to leave before he went to check on the injured men on the direction of the emergency dispatcher speaking with him on his cell phone.

"As he went to check on (the men), the woman left the scene," court records say.

While the man was giving a statement to Will, a motorist went past the police barricade and fatally struck the patrolman.

Identified from photo

The witness identified Cortez from a photo. Police also contacted a brother and sister of Cortez. According to the complaint, the brother said that he became worried in the early hours of May 29 when Cortez did not come home. When he finally reached her by phone, Cortez said something had happened and then hung up, the complaint said.

Later that evening, Cortez returned home and told her brother that she was in an accident involving a motorcycle on I-610 around 2 a.m. He said she "appeared very nervous and then called their mother in Mexico."

Shortly after, Cortez told her brother that "she was leaving for Mexico and she gathered some belongings and her children and left Houston immediately for Mexico," court records said.

The brother also told police that he has called his sister multiple times in the last two weeks and verified that she is in Mexico, the complaint said. The sister also gave police similar information.

Houston police also discovered that the SUV was reported stolen by Cortez just before 5 p.m. on May 29. According to the criminal complaint, Cortez met with a Harris County Sheriff's Office deputy that day and reported that she had finished working that morning and parked her Suburban east of her trailer before she went to bed, but when she awoke around noon, the vehicle was missing. The SUV was recovered late May 29 in the 9000 block of Jensen and had damage consistent with being in a wreck, the complaint said.

Johoan Rodriguez has been charged in Will's death and remains in the Harris County jail.

cindy.george@chron.com