DENVER – The driver accused of killing a woman who was left on Interstate 25 by a rideshare vehicle on New Year’s Day in Thornton told police he thought a rock struck his vehicle at the time of the deadly crash and only realized what happened when he saw the news that police were looking for his vehicle, according to an affidavit obtained by Denver7 Thursday.
Thornton police responded to the scene of the crash at around 12:46 a.m. on Jan. 1 where an officer met two of the friends of the woman who was struck and killed by a passing truck.
The women, who were all intoxicated at the time, told the responding officer they were on their way to a weekend home rental in Frederick in a rideshare vehicle when one of their friends became ill and vomited into the front passenger seat of the car.
They told the officer the rideshare driver then pulled over, causing the woman who became ill to become “upset and got out of the vehicle and walked east bound into an open field,” according to the affidavit.
Documents show the other women then paid the rideshare driver and walked after their friend, who was walking north in the field parallel to I-25.
“[The woman] then walked west bound toward the highway and entered the roadway. She was then struck by (an) unknown vehicle and fell down. [Her friends] tried to stop traffic, but [the woman] was struck again,” the affidavit reads.
The driver of the vehicle who struck the woman a second time remained at the scene and told the officer he was driving home when a woman waving on the side of the road caught his attention before he hit something on the roadway, according to the document.
The man’s wife told police they could “see a woman on the shoulder who caught their attention before hitting something, thinking it was furniture,” the affidavit states.
Other witnesses who spoke with police told the officer they were traveling northbound on I-25 when they were passed by a pickup that was “driving erratic and weaving,” before cutting off a small white SUV.
“When they got to the area of the crash, they observed the pickup swerve to the right and all the way into the east shoulder then veer back and continue south,” according to the affidavit.
Those witnesses then observed the body on the road and called 911 but did not stop.
Later that night, 33-year-old Adam Wooley, of Frederick, Colo., contacted the Thornton Police Department and told them something had struck his truck, on the driver side, and broke his driver side window, headlight and mirror. He said there were no cars around him and thought “someone had thrown something at his truck,” arresting documents show.
A day later, Wooley went to the Thornton Police Department along with his wife and his attorney, and his wife told police she thought she heard a noise before seeing that Wooley’s window had shattered.
“She thought the window was busted by a rock or was shot out,” the affidavit reads, before stating, “They continued north and went to her grandmother’s house in Frederick… they never called policed and were just scared and drove home.”
Speaking to investigators, Wooley said he was traveling northbound on I-25 in the right lane and was going at approximately 70 miles per hour.
“He said his window broke and he thought it was a rock. He looked around and didn’t see anyone. He said he never pulled over and continued to drive home. He does not remember swerving,” the affidavit states.
Per arresting documents, later that day, Wooley was “watching the news and saw the news release of the crash involving a female in the area where his window broke. He went outside and say (sic) the damage then called the police.”
Wooley was taken into custody and later taken to the Adams County Detention Center, where he was being held on a charge of hit-and-run – failed to remain at scene of accident death.
His first court hearing will Jan. 17 at 1:30 p.m.