LAKE HALLIE, Wis. (AP) — The Latest on the deaths of three Girl Scouts and a mother struck by a pickup truck along rural Wisconsin highway (all times local):
8:50 a.m.
Police say the 21-year-old driver accused of striking and killing three Girl Scouts and a mother and injuring a fourth girl had been inhaling chemical vapors before the crash in northwestern Wisconsin.
Authorities are recommending 13 charges against Colten Treu, including four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle. Lake Hallie police say Treu and a passenger in his pickup truck told police they had been intentionally inhaling chemical vapors, or huffing, just before the crash around 11:30 a.m. Saturday.
The fourth-graders from the Chippewa Falls School District were picking up trash along County Highway P as part of a community service project when they were struck.
The victims were among seven children and five adults who were working in the ditches along the roadway.
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8:30 a.m.
Authorities have identified the three Girl Scouts and a parent killed after they were struck by a pickup truck along a rural Wisconsin highway.
Lake Hallie police say 9-year-old Jayna Kelley and 10-year-old Autum Helgeson, both of Lake Hallie, were killed in the Saturday morning collision. Ten-year-old Haylee Hickle and her 32-year-old mother, Sara Jo Schneider, from the Town of Lafayette, were also killed. Authorities say another 10-year-old Girl Scout who was injured, but not identified, is hospitalized in stable condition.
The victims were picking up trash in the ditches of County Highway P when they were struck Saturday about 11:30 a.m. Police have arrested 21-year-old Colten Treu, of Chippewa Falls. He is jailed on 13 possible charges, including homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle.
Treu is expected to appear at a bond hearing at 10 a.m. Monday.
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7:30 a.m.
Authorities say a 21-year-old driver was intoxicated when he struck and killed three Girl Scouts and a parent and critically injured a fourth girl along a rural Wisconsin road.
Police say the fourth-graders and a mother were collecting trash in Lake Hallie Saturday morning when they were struck by the truck. The driver, Colten Treu, sped away, but later surrendered to authorities.
Chippewa County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Jensen says Treu is being held on 13 possible charges, including four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle.
Jensen says Treu will have a bond hearing at 10 a.m. Monday. He says Treu does not yet have an attorney.
The girls were members of Troop 3055 in nearby Chippewa Falls.
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11:16 p.m.
As a western Wisconsin community grieves the deaths of three Girl Scouts and a parent who were struck by a pickup truck, authorities still haven’t released the names of the victims or a fourth girl who survived.
Police say they were hit over the weekend when the pickup veered off a rural highway in Lake Hallie as they collected trash along a rural highway and then sped away.
The girls were fourth-graders and members of Troop 3055 in nearby Chippewa Falls, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) east of Minneapolis.
Lake Hallie police Sgt. Daniel Sokup says the pickup crossed a lane Saturday morning and veered into a roadside ditch, striking the victims.
The 21-year-old driver, Colten Treu of Chippewa Falls, later surrendered. Sokup says he will be charged with four homicide counts.
