On September 25, 2023, a horse-drawn Amish buggy was making its way along County Road 1 in rural Stewartville, Minnesota, carrying four children to school. Wilma Miller, 7, and Irma Miller, 11, were among them, along with their 9-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister.
Samantha Petersen was driving her Toyota 4Runner in the same direction. Her blood later tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine, and THC. She was traveling between 61 and 71 miles per hour in a 55-mph zone when she rear-ended the buggy. The horse died. Wilma and Irma died from their injuries. Their two siblings were hospitalized with serious injuries.
Samantha left the scene and called her identical twin sister, Sarah. She needed her to come and take the blame.
By the time deputies arrived, Sarah was at the scene telling them she had been the one driving, that she’d borrowed Samantha’s SUV because her own car was in the shop. She had a plausible story, a familiar face, and a twin’s advantage.
What she didn’t know was that when a deputy stepped out of his squad car to talk to other officers, he left his digital pocket recorder running inside with Sarah in it.
It caught her on the phone to Samantha. “I think one of the guys is onto me,” she said, “but I don’t really care. There’s no way they would ever know the difference between the two of us, so they can’t tell.”
Investigators also found a text Samantha had sent on the day of the crash: “I hit that Amish buggy and killed two ppl. Made Sarah come there and take the fall for it so I wouldn’t go to prison.”
She had also messaged her HR manager at Hy-Vee, where both sisters worked, saying she was “messed up” and high on meth. When the HR manager called her, among the first words out of her mouth were: “I just killed two Amish people. They were kids.”
Samantha Petersen pleaded guilty to criminal vehicular homicide. Sarah pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting and was sentenced to 90 days in jail. Samantha’s sentencing was scheduled for September 2025
