Victim of hit and run of mother of scouts: "There was no warning"

CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. – The driver accused of the death of three Wisconsin scouts and the death of one of their mothers is expected to be formally charged on Tuesday morning. Colten Treu, 21, faces multiple homicide counts. Girls were collecting garbage next to a rural highway on weekends when a the van hit them.

Treu stays at the county jail on a $ 250,000 bail, reports CBS News correspondent DeMarco Morgan. The mother of one of the girls killed said she was standing near her daughter when the truck crashed in their direction.

"There was no warning, it was fast, it was from behind, no one could turn around," said Robin Kelley, head of the troupe and the police. troops. She added that this photo was taken shortly before the accident that killed 9-year-old daughter Jayna.

"All the girls are part of the family – they were Jayna's closest friends," Kelley said.

Jayna was the youngest of three girls killed on Saturday. Officials identified the other victims as Autumn Helgeson and Haylee Hickle, both 10, and Haylee's mother Sara Jo Schneider. Another 10-year-old girl, identified by her mother's Facebook account as Madalyn Zwiefelhofer, remains hospitalized in a stable state. They were picking up trash on a highway west of Wisconsin on Saturday morning when they were hit by the truck.

Treu appeared in court on Monday via a closed-circuit television channel. The police stated that he and his passenger, also in police custody, had "blown" or inhaled the vapors of an aerosol cleaner before the accident, which prosecutors had advanced before the police. court.

"The driver seemed to be a bit out of this," said the general counsel.

Authorities say Treu's black van was heading north on a two-lane road when the vehicle crossed the center line and turned into the ditch to hit Girl Scout.

Police said the troop members wore high visibility vests. In a statement, Girl Scouts in the United States said, "Our hearts are broken for girls and families."

"You want to get angry, and you feel guilty, but you can not … it's just something that was out of our control," said Jayna's father, Brian Kelley.

Treu faces four counts of homicide for drunk driving of a vehicle. He also faces several charges for escaping the scene. He went to the authorities on Saturday. Police said in 2014 that he had been found guilty of driving while intoxicated.