On the morning of September 25, 2023, four Amish siblings climbed into a horse-drawn buggy on Fillmore County Road 1 in Sumner Township, Minnesota, and set out for school. Wilma Miller was 7 years old. Her sister Irma was 11. Their 9-year-old brother and 13-year-old sister rode alongside them. The buggy never reached the schoolhouse. A silver SUV struck it from behind, and in the minutes that followed, two of the four children were dead.
The driver was Samantha Jo Petersen, 37, of Wabasha, Minnesota. She was driving home from work, high on methamphetamine. And she had a twin sister who looked exactly like her.
Samantha called her twin to the scene
After the crash, Samantha did not wait for police to arrive and identify her. She called her identical twin, Sarah Beth Petersen, and asked her to come to the scene. When Fillmore County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, it was Sarah who met them, telling investigators she had been behind the wheel of the SUV.
Samantha stood nearby as her sister fielded questions. What neither of them knew was that a deputy’s body recorder was running. While Sarah sat in the back of a squad car, believing she was alone, Samantha leaned through an open window and the two spoke. A recording captured Sarah saying: “I think one of the guys is on to me, but I don’t really care. And there’s no way they would ever know the difference between the two of us, so they can’t tell.”
That recording gave investigators their first hard evidence that the woman who had presented herself as the driver was not.
Samantha’s phone collapsed the cover-up
Search warrants executed on Samantha’s cellphone confirmed what the recording had suggested, and then went further.
Her Google search history showed she had looked up “What happens if you get in an accident with an Amish buggy and kill two people” and “If you hit a buggy and kill two people are you going to prison?” She had also searched “How to lock an iPhone. Cops have” indicating she was aware her device could be seized and was attempting to restrict access to it. Location data from the phone placed her at the scene as the driver.
Investigators also recovered her text messages from that day. She had messaged two managers at her workplace to say she had messed up and had been under the influence of methamphetamine at the time of the crash. In a separate exchange with a contact identified in court as Dan, the admission was even more direct. Dan had texted that a little girl had been killed that day. Samantha replied: “Dan, I don’t think you realize I did that.” When he expressed confusion, she wrote: “I hit that Amish buggy and killed two ppl […] Made Sarah come there and take the fall for it so I wouldn’t go to prison.”
Samantha was originally charged with 21 counts connected to the crash and the cover-up.
Both sisters faced Fillmore County Court
On March 31, 2025, Sarah Beth Petersen appeared before Fillmore County District Court Judge Jeremy Clinefelter. She had pleaded guilty to lying to law enforcement and pretending to be Samantha at the crash scene. Clinefelter sentenced her to no more than six months in the Fillmore County Jail, four years of supervised probation, 120 days of electronic home monitoring following her release, and a $1,500 fine. With good behavior she served approximately 60 days.
In June 2025, Samantha’s attorney Carson Heefner announced she would enter a guilty plea. The 21 charges were reduced to two: criminal vehicular homicide under the influence and criminal vehicular operation under the influence. She entered her guilty pleas on July 11, 2025.
Heefner later disclosed that, on his legal advice, Samantha had not reached out to the Miller family in the two years between the crash and her plea. “I advised her against it because we were defending a serious criminal charge and I didn’t want any indication she was admitting guilt at the time,” he said. “I know that may not sound right to the general public, but from a legal perspective, that’s how things have to be done.”
The Miller family had received no apology from either sister before the day of Samantha’s sentencing.
Samantha Petersen went to prison
On October 16, 2025, Samantha appeared in Fillmore County District Court for sentencing. Sarah Beth Petersen, who had by then completed her own jail term, was in the courtroom as well, seated directly behind her twin sister.
Before Judge Clinefelter announced Samantha’s fate, Samantha addressed the court. It was the first time she had publicly accepted responsibility for what she did on the morning of September 25, 2023.
“I need you to know how truly deeply sorry I am,” she said. “I think about it every single day and I know I will carry that weight for the rest of my life. There are no excuses for my actions that morning. Every day I wish I could go back and make a different choice. My addiction took a lot from me, but it took your world from you, and for that, I will never be able to forgive myself. Every day, I wish it would have been me instead of them.”
She also addressed the cover-up. “In fear and shame, I made terrible decisions to deceive the police and the justice system. I know my actions disrespected the officers who were simply doing their job and the court that seeks truth and justice. I am deeply sorry for that.”
Heefner argued Samantha had achieved sobriety during her time awaiting trial and deserved probation. Prosecutors opposed any leniency, arguing her remorse was directed at herself rather than at the children who had died. When victim impact statements from the Miller parents were read aloud by a family friend, both Petersen sisters wept.
Judge Clinefelter acknowledged Samantha’s sobriety work but declined to deviate from the plea agreement. He sentenced her to 48 months at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee and ordered her to pay $39,527.73 in restitution. “Criminal conduct that takes human life should be punished,” he said. “Accountability matters. And people who commit crimes and deliberately try not to get caught, and discourage law enforcement from doing its job, that has to be discouraged from a public safety and societal standpoint.”
Wilma and Irma Miller
Wilma Miller was 7. Irma Miller was 11. They were on their way to school on a Tuesday morning when a driver high on methamphetamine rear-ended the buggy they shared with two of their siblings. Because Amish families do not carry insurance, a GoFundMe campaign established in the aftermath of the crash raised $90,000 for the Miller family.
Two years passed between the morning Samantha Petersen struck their buggy and the day she entered the courtroom to answer for it. In that time, the Miller family received no word from either sister. They learned, at Samantha’s sentencing, that her attorney had advised against it.
