Weekend Burnsville Crash Now Criminal Investigation
The State Patrol has identified 20-year-old James Lapsley, of Prior Lake, as the driver of a car, a 2012Ford Fusion, that went off Interstate 35W just south of the Burnsville Parkway exit around 7:15 a.m. Saturday and slammed into a sound barrier, killing 19-year-old Kayli Thompson of Apple Valley.
Originally they said alcohol was not a factor in the crash, but know they are getting warrants for blood tests to see if there were any other drugs involved.
State Patrol Lt. Tiffani Nelson told KSTP "With a fatality and a search warrant, we can test the driver's blood, means we do consider this a criminal investigation, but we cannot comment any further than that,"
20 year old Blake Hathaway also told KSTP that Thompson and Lapsley were at his house before the accident occurred and that drug use did happen. He said he is willing to talk to investigators about what happened. Thompson's father hopes this will shed more light on what happened.