The northwestern Wisconsin man who was found in a driveway with fatal injuries this week had fallen from a moving vehicle that morning with a drunken driver behind the wheel, authorities said Wednesday.
Preston Decorah, 27, of Webster, was riding atop a vehicle being driven by a 31-year-old woman in the Hertel area of Burnett County and was discovered unconscious about 9:15 a.m., the Sheriff's Office said.
"The [911] caller was unable to wake him," Sheriff Tracy Finch said in a statement.
Decorah fell from the vehicle onto the road and remained there for about an hour and then moved to the 911 caller's driveway, Finch said. He later died at Regions Hospital in St. Paul.
The driver, also from Webster, was arrested shortly before noon Monday and remains jailed on suspicion of causing death by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle and reckless homicide.
She has yet to be charged. The Star Tribune generally does not identify suspects before they are charged. Autopsy results revealed that Decorah died from head injuries.
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