Iowa Man Faces Charges After Leaving Accident Where Friends Died

Iowa authorities have arrested a 21-year-old man after they say he left the scene of an accident in which two of his friends were later found dead.

Friday, April 30 at approximately 6:15 a.m., deputies with the Fremont County Sheriff's Office were contacted about a man who was transported to a hospital in a private vehicle. According to a press release from the Fremont County Sheriff's Office, it was learned that he possibly had been involved in a vehicular accident, but the location was not known.

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Officers with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, troopers from the Iowa State Patrol, a plane from the Iowa State Patrol, and Fremont County Sheriff's Deputies all began a search.

Deputies were notified at about 9:45 a.m. that morning that family members of the man who sought treatment had found a vehicle in the East Nishnabotna River, west of Riverton, in extreme southwestern Iowa.

When rescue workers arrived on the scene, they found the bodies of 29-year-old Somia Moore and 19-year-old Jonathan L. O'Hearn inside the partially submerged vehicle. Both Moore and O'Hearn were from Hamburg, Iowa.

After the discovery of the bodies of Moore and O'Hearn, 21-year-old Duane J.M. Stuck, also of Hamburg, was arrested. Authorities say he was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident. Stuck has been charged with two counts of Homicide by Vehicle (Operating While Intoxicated), and one count of Leaving the Scene of an Accident, Resulting in Death. All are felony charges.

Moore's mother, Randa Pond, told KETV,

They were on a gravel road, there was speed involved, finding out he was intoxicated as a driver. There was blunt force trauma to her head, but the actual cause of death was drowning. Jonathan died of drowning. Both of them could have been possibly saved.

The incident continues to be investigated and the Fremont County Sheriff's Office says additional charges are pending.