Woman in crashed car might have died weeks ago

A Clark County motorist whose body was found in a Delaware County crash that was reported Thursday morning might have crashed up to three weeks earlier.

A crew picking up debris Thursday along northbound Interstate 71, just north of the Rts. interchange in Kingston Township, came across the 1993 Dodge Dakota pickup about 150 yards off the road in a farm field, Lt. Bob Sellers of the State Highway Patrol said Friday.

The victim, Chelsea Marie Dowler, 27, of Springfield in southwest Ohio, was pronounced dead at the crash scene.

Dowler had been reported missing. “According to Springfield police, the car was either stolen or taken from the victim’s father without his permission” on either Aug. 20 or Aug. 21, Sellers said.

A news release issued by Lt. Marcus Pirrone, the Delaware post commander, contained none of that information and implied that the crash had occurred Thursday. Followup calls requesting more information that morning, including the crash time, were verified, incorrectly, by others at the post.

“Once we learned the additional details we should have at least done an updated news release,” said Sellers. He said he had no idea why the facts were left out.

Dowler had a drug problem and heroin addiction since at least 2009, her mother, Janette Lanum of Springfield, told The Dispatch on Friday.

“She had been doing well for 2 years,” Lanum said. “She’d been through rehab and incarcerations and getting better.”

But on Aug. 19, that all changed, Lanum said. “She was getting dope-sick and needed drugs. I’d never seen her that bad.”

Lanum said she wasn’t that surprised when she got the call from police Thursday.

Lanum said the Delaware County coroner had told her that Dowler had been thrown from the vehicle, which was on top of her, and that her body was severely decomposed.

“It is a relief to have closure,” Lanum said. “Whether an overdose or car accident or someone harmed her. She’s gone.

“She was always trying to help people,” she said. “She was the sweetest girl I ever knew ... and not just because she was mine.”

Dowler leaves behind two sons, ages 6 and 4.