A 21-year-old Florida woman was just minutes from home after attending a wedding when authorities say a wrong-way driver slammed into her head-on while nearly three times over the legal alcohol limit.
Lauryn Akey was killed in the early morning hours of May 17 on I-75 in Charlotte County, Florida.
The man accused in the crash, 53-year-old Dennis Olson, is now facing charges of DUI manslaughter and vehicular homicide.
According to a probable cause affidavit, Olson was driving a Ford F-150 south in the northbound lanes of I-75 near mile marker 149 shortly after 1 a.m.
Troopers with the Florida Highway Patrol said Olson first sideswiped a Kia Optima but kept going the wrong way down the highway.
Moments later, investigators said he crashed head-on into Akey’s Honda CR-V.
The impact was devastating. Akey was ejected from her vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene.
A witness helped Olson out of his truck and noticed that his speech was slurred, according to troopers.
When investigators spoke with Olson at the crash scene, he allegedly admitted he had been driving the truck. He reportedly told troopers he was having a “bad” night.
Olson said he had been coming from “Sip & Sizzle” in Fort Myers and claimed he drank one glass of wine.
But authorities said a blood draw told a very different story.
According to the affidavit, Olson’s blood alcohol content was 0.222, nearly three times Florida’s legal limit.
After he was released from the hospital, Olson was taken to the Charlotte County Jail, where he remains held without bond.
For Akey’s family, the heartbreak is almost impossible to process.
They said Lauryn had been coming home from a wedding that night. She had just stopped for gas and texted her family that she loved them and was almost home.
Moments later, she was gone.
Her mother, Melinda Mucho, said Lauryn was preparing for a bright future. She was set to graduate from the University of South Florida next year with a degree in exercise science and dreamed of becoming a nurse.
“She would have done amazing things,” Mucho said. “Her life was just on the horizon; her life was just getting started with her boyfriend. She was going to graduate next year, and I want everyone to see her and feel that.”
Friends have started using the hashtag #lovelikelauryn on social media to honor her memory.
Mucho said her daughter had a way of making people feel loved and included.
“You can look her up and see how loved she is,” she said. “You can feel it by looking at her smile. I want everyone to see her and be like her. She was never mean to anybody. She brought people together, so many people together. Loved hard, loved so hard.”
The case is even more disturbing because Olson reportedly has a previous drunk driving conviction in Minnesota, where he also drove the wrong way down a road.
His next court date in the Florida case is scheduled for June 15.
Lauryn’s family is now left grieving a young woman whose life was just beginning, after a night that should have ended with her safely walking through the door.
What an absolute waste. I feel so, so sorry for Lauryn’s family. I hope this dispicable POS never gets out of prison.
Way to go Olson, you loser!!!