Two dead in southern Minnesota crash

Two people are dead and a third person is recovering in a hospital following a head-on crash Thursday night on a southern Minnesota highway.

The crash on an icy and snow-covered Hwy. 63 about a mile north of Racine, Minn., happened just before 6 p.m., the State Patrol said.

Thersea Fluteplayer, 27, of Flandreau, S.D., was driving north in a Ford Fusion when she collided with a southbound Toyota Sienna, the patrol said.

Fluteplayer was taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, where she died, the patrol said.

A passenger in her vehicle, Rory Anderlik, 34, of Riceville, Iowa, was pronounced dead at the scene.

The driver of the Sienna, a 45-year-old woman from Racine, was taken to a hospital with noncritical injuries, the patrol said.

All three victims were wearing seat belts when the crash happened. Alcohol was not a contributing factor, the patrol said.