Background: The crash scene on U.S. 93 near milepost 175 in the area of Congress, Arizona (Carey Smith/AZ Family/YouTube). Inset: Amy Lynn Mickelson (Arizona Department of Public Safety).
A woman is accused of crossing the center line of a major highway in Arizona and smashing “head-on” into a minivan, killing three people inside.
Amy Lynn Mickelson, 48, faces a multitude of charges, including three counts of second-degree murder, seven counts of aggravated assault, two counts of felony endangerment, criminal damage, and aggravated DUI, the Arizona Department of Public Safety announced. Though she was arrested last week, the crash occurred in the winter of 2024.
On Dec. 7, 2024, around 2 p.m., Mickelson was driving her BMW sedan on southbound U.S. 93 near milepost 175 in the area of Congress, Arizona, the agency said in its press release. Also driving on the major north-south highway was a group of people in a Toyota Sienna minivan.
Authorities contend that Mickelson was “impaired” — though they do not say by what — when she drove across the line dividing the two sides of the road and “struck” the minivan “head-on.”
A witness, Christina Lane, told local outlet AZ Family that she rushed to help the people in the minivan while her boyfriend rescued the woman from the BMW moments before it was engulfed in flames. Aerial video obtained by the outlet shows the sedan burning, with a large amount of smoke billowing up into the air.
The BMW was badly wrecked, while photos of the crash”s aftermath show the minivan totaled, too.
Three people in the minivan were pronounced dead at the scene. While the Arizona Department of Public Safety did not name them, AZ Family identified the driver’s age as 51, with the two passengers who died ages 44 and 17.
“The remaining four occupants, all minor children between the ages of 5 and 16, were transported for medical treatment with serious physical injuries,” the press release added. They were expected to survive.
About 2:15 p.m. that day, detectives with the department’s Vehicular Crimes Unit responded to the crash and investigated its cause. Though they determined that Mickelson caused it, they say she “fled Arizona and established residence in Utah.”
With the help of the U.S. Marshals Service, law enforcement found and arrested Mickelson outside a convenience store in Salt Lake City, Utah, on March 19, 2026. She was booked into the nearby Weber County Jail and held without bond before being extradited to Yavapai County, Arizona.
Congress, Arizona, is located about 80 miles northwest of Phoenix.
