Whitewater man arrested for OWI-homicide
A 40-year-old Whitewater woman and a 65-year-old Illinois man died Sunday in separate crashes in the towns of Whitewater and Darien.
In the Town of Whitewater, Melissa J. Patrick, 40, was ejected from the sport utility vehicle she was driving when it rolled on Highway 89 south of Island Road at about 4:55 p.m. and died at the scene.
Patrick was driving a 2005 Ford Freestyle south on Highway 89 and was slowing to enter a driveway when the SUV was hit from behind by a 2014 Chevy Malibu, according to the Sheriff’s Department. The impact forced the Freestyle into the ditch where it overturned. A juvenile girl in Patrick’s vehicle was taken by ambulance to Fort Atkinson Hospital with moderate injuries.
Patrick, a 1992 graduate of Whitewater High School who was studying psychology at UW-Whitewater, is survived by her children, Josh and Abby. Her complete obituary appears inside on page 5.
The driver of the Chevy Malibu, Craig Michael Seefeldt, 50, of Whitewater, is expected to be charged in Walworth County Circuit Court with operating while intoxicated-homicide; operating while intoxicated causing injury; and reckless driving, endangering safety. Seefeldt was being held in the Walworth County Jail as of Monday.
In the Town of Darien, Stephen P Schmitz, of Wheeling, Ill., died at the scene of a crash at about 3:45 p.m. at County Road C west of Clowes Road near the Rock County line. Schmitz was operating a motorcycle eastbound on County Road C when he struck a guardrail, according to the Walworth County Sheriff’s Department. The motorcycle then entered the westbound lane of traffic and was struck by a 2003 Dodge minivan.
None of the occupants of the minivan – driver Tina L. Langnes, 46, of Lake Geneva, passenger Adrian J. Eller, 29, of Janesville, a juvenile boy and a juvenile girl – required medical attention, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
