The story out of western Wisconsin is brutal even before anyone gets to the quote that made national headlines. A 17-year-old driver is accused of plowing into a marathon runner, leaving him in a ditch, and then telling investigators she “didn’t really care” about what happened. It is the kind of case that forces a hard look at teen drinking, driving, and the way some young suspects seem chillingly detached from the damage they cause.
What unfolded on a dark road in Dunn County is not just one family’s nightmare, it is a snapshot of a wider problem. From Eau Claire to Illinois, recent cases show young drivers allegedly drunk, high, or both, treating deadly crashes like an inconvenience instead of a life-ending event for someone else.
The crash that left a runner dead in Dunn County
Investigators in MENOMONIE, Wis say 17-year-old Addison Bowell was behind the wheel when a marathon runner was struck and left to die along a rural road. The victim, identified in later reporting as a dedicated distance runner, had been out training when a vehicle hit him with enough force to throw him into a ditch near a mailbox. The impact was so violent that the runner’s body was not immediately visible from the road, and the scene looked at first like nothing more than a damaged stretch of pavement and a quiet driveway.
In a twist that still stuns people who hear it, the victim’s body was discovered by Bowell’s own mother as she left home and noticed something near the mailbox that did not belong. She found the runner lying there and called authorities, only for investigators to later connect the death to her daughter’s vehicle. Court records describe a fatal hit-and-run in Dunn County that started as a late-night drive and ended with a family realizing their child was accused of killing a man their community knew as a marathoner, a detail that surfaced as the case moved toward a guilty plea reported through court coverage.
‘Didn’t really care’: what the teen allegedly told police
What pushed this case from tragic to jaw-dropping was not just the hit-and-run, it was how officers say the teenager talked about it afterward. According to a criminal complaint, when investigators in MENOMONIE, Wis questioned her about the crash, Bowell allegedly admitted she had been drinking and then said she “didn’t really care” that she had hit someone. That blunt phrase, captured in charging documents, has become shorthand for the emotional distance adults hear in some of these interviews with young suspects. It is the kind of line that makes even seasoned officers stop and replay their body camera footage.
Earlier reporting from EAU CLAIRE, Wis described a teenager with more than a dozen underage drinking charges on her record, accused of driving drunk, striking a runner, and leaving him in a ditch while she went home. In that account, the teen allegedly told police she “didn’t care” after she struck the victim, a detail that tracks with the Dunn County complaint and shows a pattern of risky behavior that had been building long before the night of the crash. The same reporting notes that the teen’s history of underage drinking and alleged drug use had already put her on law enforcement’s radar, yet she still ended up behind the wheel that night.
Alcohol, marijuana, and a long record before the crash
By the time officers sat down with Bowell after the Dunn County crash, she was not a blank slate teenager making one terrible mistake. Charging documents say she told investigators she “had drank a lot” before driving, and she also admitted to smoking marijuana. When pressed about the condition of her car, Bowell reportedly brushed off the fresh damage by saying it already had “a lot of damage” from earlier incidents, adding that she had “hit a lot of things” before. That casual description of a battered vehicle, paired with her admission about alcohol and marijuana, paints a picture of a driver who had been normalizing risky behavior for a while, according to the complaint summarized in charging records.
Investigators also noted that Bowell had racked up more than a dozen underage drinking citations before the fatal crash, a staggering number for someone who was still 17. That history matters because it shows how often adults around her, from police to court officials, had already been forced to intervene. Yet the pattern continued, with alcohol, marijuana, and driving all colliding on a rural road where a marathon runner happened to be training. When prosecutors in MENOMONIE, Wis filed formal charges, they leaned heavily on that record to argue this was not a one-off lapse but the deadly end of a long slide.
Other young drivers, same chilling detachment
As shocking as Bowell’s alleged comments sound, they are not unique. In Illinois, police body camera video captured a college student smiling and giggling after a DUI crash that killed a couple. According to investigators, she told officers she had downed three vodka drinks and was “just getting her night started” when she hit the victims on the side of the road. The footage shows her alternating between confusion and lighthearted chatter while officers tried to explain that two people were dead because of her choices, a disconnect detailed in coverage of the Illinois crash.
Another viral example came from a case highlighted in a body camera compilation titled “When A Suspect Doesn’t Realize Her Life Is Over,” where a young woman involved in a deadly crash keeps asking when she can go back to school. In the clip, recorded in Oct and shared widely online, an officer finally snaps and tells her they are “done,” pointing out that she is on camera being “completely careless” about killing someone. The video, which has been viewed millions of times on YouTube, has become a shorthand reference for the way some young suspects seem more worried about missing class than facing a homicide charge.
What these cases say about teen drinking and accountability
Put together, the Dunn County crash, the Illinois DUI, and the Oct body camera clip sketch a pattern that is hard to ignore. In each case, a young woman is accused of mixing alcohol, or alcohol and marijuana, with a car, killing people who were simply out living their lives. Then, in the immediate aftermath, they appear detached, even flippant, about the devastation. For Bowell, that alleged “didn’t really care” comment now sits at the center of a case that has already produced a guilty plea in the death of a marathon runner, a plea that acknowledges the fatal outcome even as the community wrestles with the attitude that came before it, as reflected in the plea hearing.
For parents, coaches, and anyone who has ever handed a teenager car keys, the lesson is not subtle. A long list of underage drinking citations, like the more than a dozen tied to Bowell in EAU CLAIRE, Wis, is not just teenage mischief, it is a flashing red warning light. A kid who jokes about “just getting her night started” after three vodka drinks, or who treats a smashed-up car as no big deal because she has “hit a lot of things,” is not ready to be in charge of a 3,000 pound vehicle at highway speeds. These cases are grim reminders that accountability has to start long before a body is found in a ditch near a mailbox, and that shrugging off early warning signs can end with a family planning a funeral for someone who only went out for a run.
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