Sheriff's officials say a 30-year old woman and her unborn child are dead after a semi driver ran a stop sign and struck their vehicle on a county road near St. Cloud Monday.
Deputies were dispatched to the intersection of County Roads 4 and 133 in LeSauk Township just before 8 a.m. There, they learned that a 2017 Subaru Forrester had been hit by a Kenworth semi. Initial evidence suggests the woman driving the Subaru, 30-year-old Casey Rose Myers of Holdingford, stopped at the 4-way stop and proceeded through the intersection, where it was struck after the semi driver failed to stop.
That driver, a 46-year-old Indiana man, reportedly told deputies he did not see the stop sign.
Myers was five months pregnant. An ambulance crew rushed her to St. Cloud Hospital, but neither Myers or her child survived the crash.
The semi driver was uninjured. At this point it is unknown whether he will face criminal charges. But deputies are investigating the possibility of distracted driving.
"We did confiscate his phone and as part of the investigation we will be applying for a search warrant to see if we can gain access to that," said Chief Deputy John Lentz of the Stearns Co. Sheriff's Office.
The victim was the wife of Matthew Myers, a junior high math teacher and varsity boys basketball coach at Holdingford High School. Holdingford Superintendent Chris Swenson tells KARE 11 that the couple were not only colleagues, but neighbors and friends. "Matt and Casey both have the biggest hearts, really good people, really good parents. It's just really tragic."
Like most coach's spouses, Casey Myers was a constant presence supporting her husband and his athletes at games, and she picked up the slack at home with their young son, Swenson says. The Superintendent met with district staff on Monday, and counselors and clergy clergy are being made available through the rest of the week for teachers, other employees and students.
"We have no idea how people will respond... people react differently," Swenson said.
With practices and Thursday's game cancelled, Holdingford basketball players met in the gym yesterday anyway to play pickup and support each other.
A GoFundMe account has been set up to help Matthew Myers and his young son for anyone who would like to contribute. .