A western Wisconsin man who pleaded no contest in the hit-and-run deaths of three Girl Scouts and one of their mothers will face the victims' families in court Tuesday in the first day of a sentencing hearing that is expected to last several days.
Colten Treu, 23, crashed his pickup truck into the girls and their chaperone in November 2018 as they picked up trash along a rural road in Lake Hallie, Wis., about 90 miles east of the Twin Cities. A 10-year-old girl also was severely injured in the incident.
Treu was convicted of four counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle after pleading no contest in the deaths. He also pleaded guilty to hit-and-run involving great bodily harm.
According to the investigation, Treu huffed a computer keyboard cleaner to get high shortly before he veered off the highway. He didn't stop after striking the five victims. 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.
An officer who arrived on the scene of the crash followed a "fresh fluid trail" for nearly two miles to the garage where Treu parked his truck.
In the days that followed, shock and grief overtook the western Wisconsin community of Chippewa Falls as it mourned and buried the victims: 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.
Mary Lynn Smith • 612-673-4788
