Investigators are continuing to try and figure out the circumstances of a crash which resulted in the deaths of three Osceola teens.
The three: 16-year-old Elaina Critz, 16-year-old Lauren Barker and 19-year-old Jesse Robinson, were found dead Tuesday morning inside a car that had gone off a road and into a creek.
Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Nathan Ludwig says the weather this past weekend has potentially made the investigation more difficult. He says it rained during the weekend and that could have washed away some of the evidence that is available to the Patrol’s technical investigators.
Ludwig says little information is known at this time, including who the driver was and when exactly the accident happened. The State Patrol is working with the Osceola Police Department to look at a lot of things to try and determine the exact time of the accident.
Ludwig says they are trying to find out when the teens last had contact with other people, when they were last on social media and those types of things to try and find out when they went missing. Right now, Ludwig can confirm that three teens did lose control on Country Club Road two miles southeast of Osceola in Clarke County. After losing control, the three ended up in a creek down a deep ravine. Sergeant Ludwig says if it weren’t for the road maintenance worker seeing the car Tuesday, it may still be a missing persons case today.
“I guess had that person not been there in that point in time sitting high up in a vehicle — that could still be a mystery today. And who knows how much longer had they not saw where the car was,” according to Ludwig. Ludwig says investigators are continuing to work to try and find answers to the questions surrounding the accident.
(Reporting by Jordan Armstrong,KSIB, Creston)