One of Minnesota’s identical twins is accused of switching places after driving at high speed on a rural highway and rear-ending an Amish horse-drawn carriage, killing two children.
Police spent months preparing the case before announcing charges.
But one expert says the damning evidence may not be as strong as it seems.
Prosecutors now allege Samantha Jo Petersen was behind the wheel when a car collided with a horse-drawn carriage on September 25, 2023, killing two children and injuring two siblings.
Prosecutors said the driver was not Sarah Beth Petersen, the identical twin sister who was responsible at the scene.
Authorities said 7-year-old Wilma Miller and 11-year-old Irma Miller were killed in the crash, and two siblings, ages 9 and 13, were taken to the hospital.
Samantha Petersen’s driver’s license was expired and her silver Toyota 4Runner was uninsured at the time of the crash, according to court documents obtained by Fox News Digital.
Sheriff John DeGeorge told local media in February that dozens of charges had been filed against the sisters after a “long investigation” uncovered suspicious “inconsistencies” that later led to the unraveling of the alleged conspiracy. said.
“Sarah was on scene shortly before our first deputy arrived,” he said in televised remarks. “That allowed us to come up with a story where Sarah takes responsibility for the accident and misleads the investigation from that very point on.”
When police arrived, she told them she was the driver and that she had hit the ATV.
Court documents say the sisters removed the switcheroo because Samantha Petersen was high at the time of the accident and feared going to prison.
Sara, who had also recently been to prison, may have felt indebted to her sister for caring for her children while she was locked up, according to the filing.
Responding officers allegedly found “several charred marijuana blunts” and a tin can of marijuana inside the crashed vehicle, and investigators later found evidence that she had also been using methamphetamine. .
The officers left with their recorders running during the investigation, and one of them, Samantha Petersen, told her sister, “I think one of the guys is mad at me, but I don’t really care…They’ll find out.” It can’t be possible,” he was said to have been recorded saying. They cannot tell the difference between us. ”
