Charges: Teen speeder crashes in Minneapolis, leaves passenger to die in fiery wreck

A 19-year-old woman with a brief but extensive penchant for speeding crashed her car on a well-traveled Minneapolis street late at night and left one of her passengers to die in the fiery wreck, according to charges filed Friday.

Mackenzie Rose Lene, of Minneapolis, was charged in Hennepin County District Court with hit-and-run criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the single-vehicle crash on March 31 that killed 20-year-old Cole Jacob Thompson, of Blaine, and severely burned another of her passengers.

Lene was jailed Wednesday afternoon and remained there in lieu of $10,000 bail. She is due in court May 30. Her attorney, Joshua London, declined to comment on the allegations.

The passenger who survived has at least another month of skin grafts and surgeries in the hospital, the criminal complaint noted. His name has yet to be released.

Court records show that Lene has been cited for speeding four times from April 2022 to July 2023, exceeding the limit anywhere from 21 to 29 mph.

She also was charged nine months ago and convicted in Hennepin County of a misdemeanor for drinking and driving while under the age of 21 in Maple Grove.

Thompson died one day before his 21st birthday.

"When Cole was born on April Fool's Day," his online obituary read, "he 'understood the assignment' and brought intense laughter and spread positivity everywhere he went. Throughout his life, 'Caveman' Cole was the CEO of adventure and had an authentic vibe like no other."

A posting on an online fundraising campaign on behalf of the family read that "Early Easter morning, two Blaine police officers knocked on Kris and Carie Thompson's door to deliver the worst news any parent can ever hear. Kris and Amy's eldest son, Cole Jacob Thompson (Lorenzen), had passed away in a tragic car accident the night before. ... Now, instead of celebrating Easter as a family, they were faced with the realization that Cole would never be coming home."

According to the criminal complaint:

Officers arrived about 12:35 a.m. and saw that the car had hit a tree. Thompson was down in the road and appeared dead. A second male was standing near the car and appeared to have serious burns along with a concussion and three broken ribs.

Two people nearby told police they heard an explosion, ran toward the street and saw Lene and a man standing outside the car. One of the witnesses told police that he and another man pulled a passenger from the backseat and placed him on the ground. The other witness reported seeing Lene and a man leaving and climbing over a wall as emergency responders arrived.

Police traced the car to a home roughly three-fourths of a mile away and collected video surveillance from the area that showed a man and a woman, later determined to be Lene and one of her passengers, walking in the alley and speaking to each other.

"I'm going home as soon as possible," Lene said. "I have to talk to my dad ... ruined my life, don't you understand."

The man responded, "You're going to be OK when you get home." He then said, "I'll help you find your car in the morning."

Lene yelled, "It's burnt the [expletive] up!"

The seriously burned passenger told officers days later that all four were in Lene's car that evening and were "passing around a bottle of alcohol" before attending a birthday party. The passenger said Thompson didn't want to drive, so Lene got behind the wheel and was "driving fast and aggressively."