An intoxicated driver pushed his Ford Mustang past 120 miles an hour, then crashed on a desolate highway in northwestern Wisconsin, killing two of his passengers, according to charges.
Edward T. Depies, 26, of Sarona, Wis., was charged in Washburn County District Court with two counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and one count of injury by intoxicated use of a vehicle.
Killed in the rollover crash on Hwy. A about 15 miles southwest of Hayward were Molly E. Undem, 25, and Donald L. Roberts III, 20, both of Spooner. A third passenger, Timothy N. Wohlford, 20, of Spooner, was injured, as was Depies.
When officers arrived at the scene about 2:30 a.m. on July 21, 2013, all four car occupants had been thrown from the vehicle, according to the criminal complaint. The officers saw beer cans and bottles "strewn around."
Seven hours after the crash, the court document continued, Depies' blood alcohol content was measured at 0.075 percent. That indicated he had been at or above the legal limit of 0.08 percent for driving when the rollover occurred.
According to the complaint, the car rolled over and came to a rest several hundred feet from the road.
Depies told police the next day at a hospital in Rochester, Minn., that he picked up the other three that night and went to a bar in Hayward but remembered nothing else. It was during a follow-up interview in April that he more fully recalled more fully the night of the crash.
Depies was charged by summons and is free pending a June 30 court appearance.
