Death of woman found during SD high-speed chase to be investigated as homicide *Updated*
Rapid City, SD. – Update: Autopsy results indicate that Michelle Nanette Walsh, the mother of Tosten David Walsh Lommen, the man who was driving the SUV during a New Year’s Day high-speed chase, died from head and neck injuries. The death will now be investigated as a homicide, according to a release from the state attorney general’s office.
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Update: The woman whose body was found in an SUV following a New Year’s Day chase has been identified as Michelle Nanette Walsh, 58 of Palm Springs, California. The woman is the mother of Tosten David Walsh Lommen, the man who was driving the SUV.
Results from an autopsy are still pending, and the death is still under investigation.
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Original story:
A traffic arrest following a high-speed chase along I-90 in South Dakota on New Year’s Day, turned into a suspicious death investigation, when highway patrol troopers found a dead woman’s body during the search of the vehicle.
The chase began just before noon Monday, when a trooper spotted a white Honda SUV heading east on I-90 at speeds of over 100 mph. When the trooper attempted to pull the driver over, the driver did not comply.
The high-speed pursued continued from Spearfish to Rapid City, where law enforcement used spikes strips to stop the vehicle, near Exit 57 in Rapid City. The driver, Tosten David Walsh Lommen, of Santa Cruz, CA., then tried to flee on foot but was arrested.
The body of the deceased woman was then found during a search of the suspects vehicle.
A press release from the South Dakota Attorney General’s Office, calls the death “suspicious” and states that Lommen has been arrested on several charges. The incident remains under investigation by the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.
