Minnesota identical twins have been accused of hatching a plot to switch places after one allegedly killed two children in a crash while high on methamphetamine.
Samantha Peterson, 35, allegedly hit a horse-drawn buggy on a road outside the small town of Spring Valley on September 25 last year. The fatal crash killed two Amish children, Wilma Miller, 7, and Irma Miller, 11.
Minnesota twins accused of swapping places charged with killing 2 Amish children after smashing into carriage https://t.co/KiqW1FrpJY pic.twitter.com/yS0dRJZdi5
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Peterson was high on meth, and to save her prison time, her identical twin sister Sara Peterson agreed to confess to the accident, according to local police.
Police took Sarah’s statement and found that she matched the description of a blonde woman given by witnesses to the crash. However, they soon grew suspicious as she wore a black top rather than a red-and-black Hy-Vee shirt.
One witness also told police he saw one blonde woman at the crash site, then shortly later, another woman who looked similar arrived and embraced the first woman.
Dashcam footage from the car of the first deputy to arrive on the scene showed two blond women on the roadway. A short time later, it showed one of the women enter a vehicle in a Hy-Vee shirt and emerge in a black tank top.
On the recording by the device left in the deputy’s truck, Sarah said to Samantha, “I think that one of the guys is onto me, but there’s no way they would ever know the difference between the two of us.”
When police searched the twins’ shared apartment in town, Samantha’s internet search history revealed damning entries. “What happens if you get in an accident with an Amish buggy and kill two people,” she searched. In addition to “how to lock an iPhone, cops have.”
Samantha has now been charged with vehicular manslaughter under the influence and fleeing the scene. Sarah has also been charged with falsely taking responsibility for the deaths.
Both sisters have a colorful rap sheet, including two DWI convictions for Samantha, one for alcohol, and one for a controlled substance.
It is also not the first time the twins have attempted to change places to evade law enforcement. Sarah was convicted of giving law enforcement her sister’s name in 2017 and giving a false name earlier that same year, according to court records.
