Issue date: 5/1/09 Section: News

Priya Darshini Muppavarapu, left, Anitha Lakshmi Veerapaneni, center, and Anusha Anumola, right, were killed in a car accident early Saturday morning in Des Peres, Mo. The three women were graduate students at Eastern in the technology program. (Photo courtesy of Sue Songer)

The St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney's Office is still waiting on the reports from the March 21 crash involving three Eastern international students.

Don Schneider, assistant to St. Louis Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch, said the Missouri State Highway Patrol has not finished its investigation yet.

This must be done before any decision can be made whether to charge the suburban St. Louis police officer involved in the car crash.

"We don't have anything yet," Schneider said. "We're still waiting … We don't have one piece of paper from the Highway Patrol yet."

The Highway Patrol is doing an investigation of where Christine L. Miller, 41, of Kirkwood, Mo., had been the night of the crash.

Miller was driving the wrong way down Dougherty Ferry Road while off-duty, when her 2001 Mitsubishi struck the 1997 Honda Accord with the Eastern students and two other people inside.

Separately, the patrol is also constructing an accident reconstruction of the scene of the crime.

In this, they will look at the speed of the cars and how far the car slid.

Schneider said this is a scientific, time-consuming process.

"I understand everyone wants information," he said. "This is an ongoing crime investigation … It's hard to say when they will have it finished."

Schneider said it is not unusual for investigations like this to take six months, or longer if fatalities are involved.

"It takes as long as it takes," he said. "You can't predict."

On the early Saturday morning, Anusha Anumolu, Anitha Lakshmi Veerapaneni and Priya Darshini Muppavarapu were returning from dinner and bowling with Veerapaneni's fiancé, Netish Adusumilli, 27, of Ballwin, Mo., and Veerapaneni's cousin, Satya Chinta, 23, of Aurora, Ill.

Miller was driving the car that struck them, and authorities have a strong suspicion that Miller was drinking beforehand.


Past articles:

Emily Zulz can be reached at 581-7942 or at eazulz@eiu.edu.

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