FORT WAYNE – A warrant was issued Wednesday for a Winona Lake woman charged in connection with a fatal crash in September on U.S. 30. She was arrested Thursday and has since bonded out. According to a probable cause affidavit provided by the Allen County Prosecutor’s Office, Stacy Motz-Altman, 38, Winona Lake, is being charged with felony counts of reckless homicide and criminal recklessness committed with a deadly weapon. The charges result from a Sept. 8 crash that killed Luann Simon, 54, Fort Wayne. Police say Motz–Altman was driving 142 mph and smashed into Simon’s vehicle, sending it into a semi, according to the affidavit. The posted speed limit was 50 mph. Investigators said Simon’s vehicle may have been dragged underneath the semi’s trailer for several hundred feet before coming to a stop. Simon was left pinned inside her vehicle. She was pulled from the wreckage by Fort Wayne firefighters and taken to a hospital in critical condition where she would later die, according to court records. Motz-Altman told police she had been ill with food poisoning and was driving to Fort Wayne to get something to eat. No drugs or alcohol were found in her system, the affidavit states.
