FILLMORE COUNTY, Minn. — A 35-year-old woman is criminally charged after prosecutors say she tried to have her twin sister take the blame for a crash involving an Amish buggy that killed two children in southeastern Minnesota last September.
Samantha Jo Petersen has been charged with eight counts of criminal vehicular homicide, including multiple counts of operating the vehicle while under the influence. Petersen is also charged with multiple counts of criminal vehicular operation.
In all, the defendant is charged with 21 separate criminal counts.
Cell phone records confirmed that Petersen was on the scene at the time of the crash on Sept. 25, and according to court documents she also admitted to being involved in the accident during a text exchange. During that exchange, Peterson allegedly told someone that she made her twin sister come to the scene to "take the fall for it so i wouldn't go to prison."
The crash, which occurred just before 8:30 a.m. that morning, took place on County Road 1 near the town of Racine. Investigators said an SUV came up from behind and struck a horse-drawn buggy carrying four siblings to school. Two of those children, 7-year-old Wilma Miller and her 11-year-old sister, Irma Miller, died on the scene. Their 1-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister were rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.
Court documents say a 35-year-old woman on the scene approached deputies and told them she was driving the vehicle that hit the buggy. The woman was given field sobriety tests and placed in the back of a squad car. It was at that time, the search warrant says, her identical twin sister Samantha Jo Peterson walked to the open window and the two held a conversation during which they discussed that officers on the scene could not tell them apart.
A deputy says that after a press release was sent out announcing one sister as the driver in the fatal crash, Fillmore County investigators were contacted by Samantha Jo Peterson's employer who said she had just clocked out from work at 8 a.m. and was headed home, a timeframe that would line up with the location of the crash. The store's human resources manager also stated that Peterson had sent communications through an employee messaging system, saying she had used methamphetamine and was high at the time of the crash.
Investigators reviewed the messages and the times they were sent, and believe they indicate Samantha Jo Peterson was the actual driver.
Warrants also allege that surveillance video obtained from the employer's parking lot and video from a deputy's squad car dash cameras show Peterson swapped clothes with her twin on the crash scene to further throw investigators off.
Deputies received a warrant to obtain a blood sample and fingerprints from Peterson the night of Sept. 26. Subsequent search warrants gave investigators permission to search the SUV involved in the crash for fingerprints, DNA and traces of drug residue and paraphernalia, among other things. Detectives also received permission to analyze electronic modules from the SUV that may provide information on speed, acceleration, and brake and seat belt usage.
When officials arrived at the home to execute the search warrant, the defendant's twin answered the door, saying Samantha moved out earlier in the year. However, when investigators entered the home, Samantha was inside. Authorities had a search warrant to obtain Samantha's phone, and then proceeded to take her to the Fillmore County Sheriff's Office where she provided a sample of her blood. Results from the blood sample showed the presence of methamphetamine, amphetamine, Delta-9 THC and a metabolite.
Samantha Jo Petersen will make her first court appearance Mar. 25 in Fillmore County Court.
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