Quentin Deuel and David DeCorte died from a traffic collision in the 500 block of Stowell Road in Onalaska on Sept. 26.
A month later, the mothers of both men are still looking for answers. Not only that, each believes their search for information has resulted in more questions.
Thomasena Seifert, mother of Deuel, and Bettina Fitzgerald, mother of DeCorte, said they were not notified by the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office after the incident.
Seifert said she learned of the accident from a friend who called her. She told The Chronicle she had to call the Lewis County Coroner’s Office the next day.
“Mind you, the accident happened a mile and a half from my house,” Seifert wrote.
Fitzgerald, a nurse in New Mexico, said she first started calling area hospitals for information after hearing about the accident. She also called emergency dispatch multiple times that night and asked for an officer to call her back.
According to Fitzgerald, she never received a return call from an officer.
Fitzgerald also reached out to the coroner’s office the night of the incident, and later received a call back informing her that her son had died.
To date, neither the sheriff’s office nor the coroner’s office has put out a news release notifying the public of the incident. The Washington State Patrol is assisting the investigation.
Speaking to the Chronicle last week, the sheriff’s office said the incident is still considered an active investigation and that they could not yet release the identities of the deceased.
The office said they were waiting on lab results from the coroner.
On Wednesday, Oct. 29, the coroner’s office told The Chronicle that the cause of death for each man was accidental blunt force trauma and indicated that toxicology results were still pending.
Such results are confidential under state law, with exceptions for family members, law enforcement, prosecutors and personal representatives.
Official details on the accident remain slim. The sheriff’s office described it as a single-vehicle rollover fatality collision, and suggested that the vehicle was likely traveling at an extremely high rate of speed before impact.
DeCorte was driving the vehicle, according to Seifert and Fitzgerald.
For now, both women have unanswered questions.
Fitzgerald wonders whether there was a preventable delay in care following the accident and wants to know why her son wasn’t immediately airlifted to a hospital.
According to her, DeCorte received emergency aid at the local fire department.
Seifert, meanwhile, said she was initially told there were no witnesses, even though both she and Fitzgerald corresponded with people who were supposedly at the scene.
Fitzgerald said some of DeCorte's friends knew of the death before his own brothers.
According to Fitzgerald, when she was finally able to get a hold of the sheriff’s office, she was told that she never expressed that she wanted to speak with an officer.
That’s not true, Fitzgerald told The Chronicle.
Fitzgerald said she is requesting records from the state patrol, 911 Communications and the sheriff’s office and intends to request records from Life Flight and emergency medical services.
Both Fitzgerald and Seifert worry their sons’ backgrounds might have played a role in the initial investigation.
“I just think they didn’t care,” Fitzgerald said. She also wondered if the incident was written off because Deuel and DeCorte were reportedly drinking.
Fitzgerald and family members held a remembrance ceremony for DeCorte on Oct. 25.
