South Dakota trooper: Body found in blanket after car chase
PIERRE, S.D. — South Dakota Highway Patrol officials found a dead woman wrapped in a blanket in an SUV stopped after a high-speed chase with a drunken driver from California, a trooper said in a court affidavit filed Tuesday.
A state court complaint says 30-year-old Tosten Walsh Lommen, of Santa Cruz, faces charges including aggravated eluding and drunken driving. Attorney General Marty Jackley’s office said in a statement that state authorities are investigating the “suspicious death” after the woman’s body was found during a search of the vehicle Lommen was driving.
The Pennington County Clerk of Courts office says Lommen’s bond has been set at $2.5 million. It wasn’t immediately clear if Lommen has a defence attorney to speak on his behalf about the case.
Lommen — who last year petitioned in California to change his full name to Israel — is being held in the Pennington County Jail.