Cascade County Sheriff/Coroner Jesse Slaughter on Wednesday identified 58-year old Daniel Orson Wells as the the man who died in a two-vehicle crash between Ulm and Cascade on July 11, 2024.
According to the obituary, Wells was a former Chief Master Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, retiring in 2013. He is survived by his wife Pamela, three childen, and many other family members and loved ones.
Jeremey Andrew Carpenter has been charged with felony vehicular homicide for the crash; he was arrested on Friday, August 2, 2024.
Carpenter is charged with driving a pickup truck southbound in the northbound lanes of Interstate 15 between Ulm and Cascade on July 11, 2024, and crashing into a northbound GMC Sierra driven by Wells.
Wells died at the scene. The Montana Highway Patrol said that Wells was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash.
According to the charging documents, Carpenter told the MHP trooper at the scene that he had not been driving the pickup truck, saying that he had been sleeping in the passenger seat at the time of the crash.
Carpenter identified another person as the driver of the pickup truck, and said the other person had run away from the crash scene.
The MHP trooper noted that Carpenter smelled of alcohol, and his eyes were red and watery.
He conducted a search of Carpenter and found several dime-sized plastic baggies with a white powder inside that later tested positive for cocaine.
The trooper also noted several open containers of alcohol in the pickup truck, and Carpenter reportedly told the trooper that he had been drinking at a bar in Ulm and a bar in Cascade.
A Cascade County Sheriff's deputy went to the home of the person that Carpenter had identified as the driver of the pickup truck. The person was sober and had no injuries, and told the deputy that he had not been with Carpenter. The person showed the deputy text messages between himself and Carpenter from earlier in which he apologized for staying home and falling asleep earlier in the evening.
Carpenter was taken to a Great Falls hospital via ambulance where he was admitted for his injuries.
A blood sample taken when Carpenter was admitted to the hospital yielded a blood alcohol level of 0.171, which is more than twice the legal limit for operating a vehicle. In addition, cocaine was also present in his blood.
On July 15, investigators talked with Carpenter, who reportedly admitted that he had been alone in the pickup truck at the time of the crash, and that he had been drinking alcohol prior to the crash.
