A Maynard woman was sending and receiving text messages in dense fog before the SUV she was driving struck and killed a man standing beside an earlier crash on Highway 10 near Willmar, according to the complaint.
Jessica Lynn Groothuis, who was 30 at the time of the alleged offense, faces charges of criminal vehicular homicide, a felony, gross misdemeanor reckless driving and misdemeanor careless driving, according to a complaint issued Oct. 19 in Kandiyohi County District Court.
According to the complaint, a Kandiyohi County sheriff’s corporal had just reached an earlier crash on Highway 10 near 60th Street SW in Willmar Township in thick fog at about 7:30 a.m. on April 10, 2026, when a vehicle came from behind at high speed, swerved toward the ditch to avoid the stopped vehicles and struck a man standing at the roadside. The man was pronounced dead at the scene. Groothuis, the driver, later told a State Patrol trooper she had her cruise control set to 65 mph and did not have time to slow down because of the fog. The posted speed limit in the area is 60 mph.
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Groothuis provided her cell phone and passcode to investigators. A forensic search of her phone revealed that she sent eight text messages and received 10 more between 7:13 a.m. and 7:27 a.m., in the minutes leading up to the crash. The phone was not plugged into the vehicle for Apple CarPlay, which investigators say is required for that model.
During an interview, Groothuis told a trooper the road was dry and the fog grew thicker as she approached Willmar. She described the visibility as “here to the window,” which the trooper estimated at about 10 feet, and said she had slowed from her usual 65 mph. She acknowledged sending and receiving text messages while driving. She first said her phone would have been plugged in for CarPlay, but after being shown data indicating it was not, she said she may have texted over Bluetooth.
A crash reconstruction report reviewed dashcam video and found thick fog and blinding sun glare from the east at the time of the collision. The report concluded Groothuis was driving too fast for the conditions, with weather and sun glare as primary factors in the crash. An autopsy confirmed the death was caused by the collision.
Groothuis is charged with criminal vehicular homicide for operating a motor vehicle in a grossly negligent manner, reckless driving for consciously disregarding a substantial or unjustifiable risk and careless driving for operating a vehicle carelessly on a street or highway.
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