Bail set at $100,000 cash for Menomonie teen charged in hit and run death

By Editor | April 8, 2025 |

By LeAnn R. Ralph

MENOMONIE — Bail has been set at $100,000 cash for a 17-year-old Menomonie girl charged in the hit and run death of Ann Seidl on March 29 in the Town of Dunn.

Addison Bowell made an initial appearance in Dunn County Circuit Court April 2, along with her attorney Michael R.Cohen, before Judge James Peterson.

Bowell is charged with two felony counts of homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle and hit and run involving death.

Judge Peterson set a preliminary hearing in the case on April 17 at 1 p.m.

Bail was set at $100,000 cash on April 1. The conditions of bail are to maintain absolute sobriety and not to enter any bars, taverns or liquor stores.

Bowell was in custody at the Dunn County jail at the time of the April 2 court hearing.

Seidl, age 54, is described as a prominent Eau Claire marathon runner. She was struck and killed while going out for an early-morning run along county Highway Y in the Town of Dunn.

According to the criminal complaint, she was wearing bright clothing, which included a reflective safety vest.

Seidl has three sons and has partnered with one son in Team Triumph, an organization that helps athletes with disabilities to reach the finish line during races, according to news reports.

Beyond help

The Dunn County Communications Center received a 911 call at around 7:15 a.m. on Saturday, March 29, from a caller who said that a woman appeared to have been hit by a car and was lying in the ditch along county Highway Y, according to the criminal complaint.

The caller said she believed that the woman was beyond help.

A Dunn County deputy arrived on the scene, along with the Menomonie Fire Department, around 7:25 a.m.

Responders saw a woman lying in the ditch who was wearing a pink long-sleeve shirt, maroon pants and had a high visibility vest around her right arm, the complaint states.

Responders performed life-saving measures but were unsuccessful.

The deputy saw vehicle parts, such as a headlight and mirror, scattered around the vicinity where the woman was lying. Based upon the vehicle parts and the injuries to the woman, the deputy believed she had been struck by a vehicle that had apparently fled the scene.

A Red Jeep arrived, and the man who got out of the Jeep began screaming “no” multiple times, according to the complaint.

The man identified the woman in the ditch and said that she lived with him. He said he had a son at home with Down Syndrome and had to go home right away. The man told deputies he lived nearby and that they would see his Jeep in the driveway, the complaint states.

Daughter

The person who had found the woman in the ditch and had called 911 had remained on the scene to speak with law enforcement officers, according to the criminal complaint.

The woman was upset and said she believed her daughter was the one who had struck the victim.

The woman said her daughter, Addison Bowell, had arrived home drunk at about 6:15 a.m. and that her daughter said she thought she might have struck another vehicle. The woman said she had seen damage to her daughter’s vehicle.

The woman said she was planning to get coffee and then go to work, and as she was driving along Highway Y, she saw a damaged mailbox, and then she saw the victim, the complaint states.

Malibu

Two deputies from the Dunn County sheriff’s department went to the woman’s address, which is about 2.5 miles away from where Seidl was struck, according to the criminal complaint.

The deputies saw a gold and white Malibu with front-end damage, and the windshield was shattered on the driver’s side as was the window on the driver’s door. The mirror and headlight also were missing, the complaint states.

When the deputies went to the residence, Addison’s grandmother met them at the door.

Later on the girl’s mother told deputies she had called Addison’s grandparents to come to the house to be with her.

Addison told the deputies “she did not want to deal with it at this time,” and when the deputies asked her what had happened, she said she did not know and asked them to leave.

When the deputies asked how her vehicle had gotten damaged, Addison told them she had “probably hit something,” but that she did not know what she had hit, according to the criminal complaint.

When the deputies asked her what kind of alcohol she had been drinking, Addison said she had “drank a lot” and indicated she had been drinking beer, vodka and “probably anything,” although she also said she had not been drinking long and said she was not drunk, the complaint states.

Throughout the discussion, the deputies observed that Addison appeared to have mood swings and that an “odor of intoxicating beverage was present,” according to the criminal complaint.

Sobriety tests

The deputies asked Addison if she would be willing to complete field sobriety tests, but she said she was not willing, according to the criminal complaint.

Eventually Addison said she would do the field sobriety tests.

During the field sobriety tests, the deputy observed nystagmus (involuntary rapid movement) in both eyes, that Addison could not maintain her balance in the nine-step-walk-and-turn, that she swayed while balancing in the one-leg stand and was unable to count from 1-one-thousand to 21-one-thousand without making mistakes.

Addison was able to recite the alphabet but was unable to count backwards from 54 to 36 without making mistakes, according to the criminal complaint.

Addison told the deputy she was going to school be a certified nursing assistant, that she had to get her life together and that she “was hoping this situation would not mess up her life,” the complaint states.

When the deputy was going to administer the preliminary breath test, Addison said she was not going to blow into it, according to the criminal complaint.

Addison did eventually blow into the PBT, and the result was a .114 blood alcohol content (BAC), the complaint states.

Grandparents

While one deputy was administering the field sobriety tests, the other deputy was talking with Addison’s grandparents.

The grandparents said the girl’s mother had asked them to go the residence to be with Addison because “she had hit something.”

When the grandparents arrived, Addison had wanted to leave with two of her friends, but her grandfather stopped her, according to the criminal complaint.

Addison’s friend said Addison had called her about 6:30 a.m. and wanted her to come and get Addison. Both friends went to the house and had been there for about 10 minutes before the deputies arrived, the complaint states.

Seidl

A deputy and the Dunn County medical examiner responded to the residence where the victim had lived.

The man was very emotional and was aware that the victim had died, according to the criminal complaint.

The man told them that Seidl went for runs almost every morning, and she had left that morning around 5:30 a.m. He said the victim had a son with Down syndrome, and when her son woke up about 7:10 a.m., he had asked why his mother was not home from her run yet.

A little while later, the man had seen an ambulance go by and drove to the scene.

The man allowed the deputy to look at his Ring camera application, and the deputy saw the victim getting dressed in the garage and putting on a high visibility vest, the complaint states.

The victim left the garage around 5:32 a.m.

Later on when a deputy executed a search warrant on the impounded vehicle, multiple empty cases of Twisted Tea and an empty liter bottle of vodka were found in the trunk, the complaint states.

House party

When deputies interviewed Addison at the Dunn County jail after reading her Miranda rights, she said she was at a house drinking in the garage all night, according to the criminal complaint.

The girl said she had gone home briefly and was going back to the house party when “I hit somebody on the way there,” the complaint states.

The girl said she “drove all the way to town,” and then turned around and went back home.

Addison said that there had been damage to her vehicle prior to that morning from hitting other things, such as a mail box and a tree, and that “I’ve hit a lot of things. I’m a really bad driver,” according to the criminal complaint.

Addison said that her mother had texted her that the lady she hit had died and then asked the deputies “did someone actually die?” the complaint states.

When the deputies confirmed that someone had been killed, the girl’s response was, “Who walks on the road at 3 in the morning?”

The deputies asked how the girl knew she had hit something, and Addison said there was a thud but that she did not stop to look, that she had been on her phone, and that she was completely in the other lane, the complaint states.

Text messages

Deputies obtained a search warrant March 29 for Addison Bowell’s phone and discovered messages she had sent to friends that morning.

When one friend asked her what she had hit, she had replied “another car” and that she had hit the car “head on,” according to the criminal complaint.

Addison sent a short six-second video of her car to her friends, and it shows damage to the front and driver’s side of the vehicle and attached to the broken glass on the driver’s side window is a black and red/pink headband, the complaint states.

Someone asked, “what’s that on your car door?” according to the criminal complaint.

Addison sent another short video where she says, “my door doesn’t open further than that,” and according to the criminal complaint, she had to physically remove the black and red/pink headband to get into the vehicle.