This is a continuation of a story that I read about over a year ago. I don't think I posted any of it here, but there is a troubling element in this investigation that few will have difficulty recognising.

Deadly I-5 crash results in a fine
A Bellevue woman receives a ticket, but is not criminally charged in a 2004 wreck near Marysville.

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MARYSVILLE - More than a year after Juliann Odom crossed the median on I-5 near Marysville and slammed into a Chevrolet Suburban, killing a Bothell woman, police have cited her for second-degree negligent driving. Odom, 23, was issued a traffic ticket Dec. 8 in Cascade District Court in Arlington. The Bellevue woman paid the $538 fine a couple of weeks later.

No criminal charges have been filed against Odom in connection with the Dec. 15, 2004, crash that killed Megan Holschen, 18, and severely injured her mother and younger sister. Washington State Patrol investigators spent months piecing together the events of the fiery crash, compiling hundreds of pages of documents, pictures and diagrams. But detectives haven't been able to pinpoint why Odom lost control of her Ford Explorer. "Our opinion is operator error caused the crash. Why she lost control? That's a question I can't answer," said Sgt. Jerry Cooper with the State Patrol's major accident investigation team.

Odom has refused to speak with investigators.

Detectives believe Odom was southbound in the right lane when she drove onto the shoulder, veered left, crossed three lanes of traffic and plowed through the cable barrier. Odom's vehicle vaulted out of the median, taking two cable strands with it into the northbound lanes, according to court records. Her Ford Explorer landed on the Holschens' Suburban. Megan Holschen, who was riding in the passenger seat, was killed instantly.

Investigators have ruled out mechanical problems with Odom's vehicle, and also any road conditions that would have caused her to lose control. Detectives didn't find any evidence that Odom was intoxicated or under the influence of drugs, Cooper said. Investigators also concluded that Odom wasn't speeding excessively.

Detectives explored additional theories about why Odom veered into oncoming traffic, and have sought her medical records to try to make a determination. Odom has declined to provide those records because "they are private," her attorney, Nick Scarpelli, said Thursday.

Snohomish County prosecutors initiated a special closed-door hearing to ask a judge to release the medical documents. A judge agreed that some of the records could be made public, but Odom's attorney appealed the decision. The state Supreme Court is expected to review the appeal sometime this month. Investigators don't know what, if anything, they'll find in those records, but wanted them as another attempt to look at why Odom lost control, Cooper said.

"We want to close all doors. Questions were brought to us, and we needed to follow up on those," he said. Investigators will review the medical records if Odom is eventually forced to provide them. Criminal charges against her have not been ruled out.

"The issuance of a civil infraction doesn't preclude us from later filing criminal charges if we receive a referral and there is adequate evidence to support criminal charges," said Joan Cavagnaro, the county's chief criminal deputy prosecutor.

John Holschen said he and his family hope the state will continue pursuing the facts. "If there is more to it than meets the eye, and if this young lady needs help and the public needs protection from this behavior in the future," it's important to get answers, he said.

His wife and daughter, Jolie, continue to recover from their injuries and expect to undergo additional surgeries in the coming months. "It's proven to be a very long road," Holschen said.

Odom is remorseful about the crash, Scarpelli said. He declined to comment about her recovery, saying only that she was seriously injured in the accident.

The Seattle attorney said he doesn't know why Odom lost control of her vehicle, but pointed to the cable barriers. "Instead of being stopped by the cable barriers, she was allowed to go through," he said. "We contend that the cable barriers were defectively installed."

A Herald analysis last summer found that the barriers failed to stop cars in the median 20 percent of the time on the stretch of I-5 where the accident happened. A state report on the cable barriers is expected within a few weeks.