Wisconsin man gets 54-year prison sentence in roadside deaths of Girl Scouts

CHIPPEWA FALLS, WIS. – A Wisconsin man was sentenced Wednesday to 54 years in prison for running down a Girl Scout troop while high on computer keyboard cleaner, killing three of the girls and the mother of one.

Colten Treu, 23, veered off the road and plowed his pickup into a ditch where the troop was picking up litter on Nov. 3, 2018, along a rural road in Lake Hallie, Wis., about 90 miles east of the Twin Cities.

"This group were among the best and brightest of the Chippewa Valley," Chippewa County Circuit Judge James Isaacson said at Treu's sentencing hearing here Wednesday, his voice breaking as he described the character of the girls who died.

"Someone's missing at Christmastime. At Easter, at school events, at Halloween," the judge said. "No graduation, no prom. No chance to prove just how great they could have become."

Treu, of Chippewa Falls, huffed a computer keyboard cleaner to get high shortly before he veered off the highway. He didn't stop after striking the victims, who were among a dozen children and adults collecting litter.

Instead, he drove his pickup to his home, parked it in the garage and placed another vehicle in front of the garage, the criminal complaint said.

Killed were Jayna Kelley, 9, and Autumn Helgeson, 10, both of Lake Hallie, and Haylee Hickle, 10, and her mother, Sara Jo Schneider, 32, of Lafayette, Wis. The girls were fourth-graders and members of Troop 3055 in Chippewa Falls.

Girl Scout Madalyn Zwiefelhofer was severely injured in the crash and hospitalized for three weeks.

The Chippewa County courtroom was packed Wednesday morning and family members on both sides of the aisle wept as the judge delivered the sentence. Treu addressed the victims' families before the judge sentenced him, expressing remorse.

"The community has every right to hate me. All of you have every right to hate me," he said. "I cannot give back what has been taken, and I know that. I will never understand the pain and suffering and grieving these losses have caused."

Isaacson said he reviewed video from the body camera of one of the first responders to the incident, calling it "surreal."

"It was quite revealing," he said, citing "the grotesquely unnatural position of the bodies" and noting that the girls' hats and shoes were flung as much as 50 feet from their bodies by the force of the impact.

"We had a number of young people, taking up a project to benefit their community," the judge said. "They were innocents, doing the right thing."

Testimony showed that Treu didn't attempt to brake during the incident. Instead, he continued accelerating through the ditch as he struck one victim after another. The Girl Scouts and the adults were all wearing highly visible reflective safety vests when they were hit.

John Stender Jr., Treu's roommate and a passenger in the truck, told authorities that he and Treu had been huffing while traveling north on County Road P. Treu looked "out of it," Stender said, so he took the steering wheel when the truck veered across the centerline. Treu yelled at him and grabbed the wheel back, steering the truck back across the centerline before fishtailing into the ditch.

Treu was convicted of four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and one count of hit-and-run involving great bodily harm.

John Reinan • 612-673-7402