Driver who killed 4 was impaired, prosecutors say
LAKE HALLIE, Wis. — A young driver was inhaling chemical vapors, or huffing, just before striking and killing three Girl Scouts and a mother and critically injuring a fourth girl who had been picking up trash along a rural Wisconsin highway, police said Monday.
Colten Treu, 21, sped off after the collision in Lake Hallie on Saturday morning, but later surrendered.
Treu was being held in the Chippewa County Jail on 13 possible charges, including four counts of intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, Chippewa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Jensen said. His bond was set at $250,000 during his first court appearance Monday.
Lake Hallie police said Treu and a passenger in the pickup truck both told investigators they had been inhaling chemical vapors just prior to the crash.
Police identified the victims as Jayna Kelley, 9, and Autum Helgeson, 10, both of Lake Hallie, and Haylee Hickle, 10, and her mother, Sara Jo Schneider, 32, from the Town of Lafayette. The surviving girl was hospitalized in Rochester in critical condition.
The children were fourth graders at Halmstad Elementary School and Southview Elementary School in nearby Chippewa Falls, about 90 miles east of Minneapolis.
Two small groups of Girl Scouts and their adult chaperones wore bright green safety vests Saturday as they walked along both sides of County Highway P, which they had adopted as a community service project.
Lake Hallie police Sgt. Daniel Sokup said Treu’s pickup crossed a lane Saturday and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims.
Hundreds of community members huddled under umbrellas in the biting rain Sunday evening for a candlelight vigil outside Halmstad Elementary. Girl Scouts sang songs in memory of the victims, who were members of Troop 3055.
“Our hearts are broken for the girls and families of the Girl Scouts of the Northwestern Great Lakes,” CEO Sylvia Acevedo of Girl Scouts of the USA said in a statement.