Prison for woman who admitted she was driving, not her twin, when she hit buggy and killed 2 Amish kids

A 37-year-old woman received a four-year term after admitting that she — and not her twin sister — was driving when her SUV struck an Amish buggy in southeastern Minnesota and killed two of the four children aboard.

Samantha Jo Petersen, of Wabasha, Minn., was sentenced in Fillmore County District Court to four years after pleading guilty to one count each of criminal vehicular homicide and criminal vehicular operation in connection with the crash shortly before 8:30 a.m. Sept. 25, 2023, along southbound County Road 1.

Petersen is expected to serve the first 2⅔ years of her term in prison and the balance on supervised release.

The defense said in the plea agreement reached in June that it wanted Petersen to serve one year in jail and then 5⅔ years on probation. Prosecutors asked then for the term that was imposed by Judge Jeremy Clinefelter.

Petersen’s twin, Sarah Beth Petersen, of Kellogg, Minn., pleaded guilty in March to two counts of aiding and abetting criminal vehicular operation and received four years of supervised probation. She also was given a 90-day term, including 60 days in jail and the balance on supervised release.

The collision southeast of Stewartville killed Wilma Miller, 7, and Irma Miller, 11. Siblings Allan Miller, who was 9 at the time, and Rose Miller, who was 13, survived their injuries.

The four children were riding to school, with Rose holding the reins, a family friend said.

The sentence orders Samantha Petersen to pay the family nearly $40,000 in restitution, an amount that Corson said is “very small and just a fraction of the expenses that the family has had. They’ve probably had several hundres of thousands of dollars in medical expenses.”

According to the charges against the twins and related court documents:

Sarah Petersen told a deputy at the scene that she was driving the silver SUV involved in the crash. The vehicle was registered to her sister.

Parked nearby was a black 2002 Toyota 4Runner, also registered to Samantha Petersen. While Sarah Petersen was left alone in a squad car, she walked over, and the two spoke.

A deputy’s pocket recorder captured Sarah Petersen saying, “I think one of the guys is onto me, but I don’t really care. ... There’s no way they would ever know the difference between the two of us, so they can’t tell.”

Samantha Petersen left work at a Hy-Vee in Rochester shortly before 8 a.m. on the day of the crash in the silver SUV. Internet mapping measures the southbound route to the crash scene as roughly a 24-minute drive. The crash occurred at 8:25 a.m.

Hy-Vee staff told law enforcement that Samantha Petersen admitted on a work messaging platform that she had used methamphetamine and was high at the time of the collision.

“The messages also indicate that [Samantha Petersen] was the driver,” a court filing disclosed.

A State Patrol investigation found that the silver SUV was traveling between 61 and 71 mph in a 55-mph zone at the time of the collision.

Along with this case, Samantha Petersen’s criminal history in Minnesota includes two convictions for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and one for giving false information to police.