Parole denied in 2001 drunken-driving death

A woman who caused a fatal car wreck driving drunk and going the wrong way on Interstate 25 has been denied parole despite being recommended for release.

Jennifer Vandresar will remain at the Denver Women’s Correctional Facility until at least August, when her next parole hearing is scheduled, state Department of Corrections spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said.

Vandresar, 40, is serving a 10-year sentence for drunken vehicular homicide. On Aug. 8, state parole board member Celeste C de Baca recommended Vandresar be freed from prison before her mandatory release in 2011. That decision needed to be approved by the full board, which ruled on Vandresar’s case Aug. 31.

Because of the circumstances of Vandresar’s crime, the board rejected the recommendation and deferred her parole until 2008, Sanguinetti said.

In July 2001, Vandresar collided head-on with a vehicle driven by Stuart Edwards, killing him. Prosecutors said she had driven 6½ miles the wrong way on the interstate and that her blood alcohol content was twice the legal limit for driving in Colorado.

Vandresar has admitted that authorities found she also was on the drug Ecstasy at the time of the crash.

When released, Vandresar said she’d like to live with her sister, Kathy Creech, in El Paso County and work at a pet store.

The car wreck happened a year and four months after Vandresar’s husband, Paul Vandresar, hanged himself in the couple’s home.

Months before the suicide, on New Year’s Eve 2000, Vandresar lost her son, Tony Dutcher. He and his grandparents, Carl and JoAnna Dutcher, were killed near Guffey by two teens, Isaac Grimes and Jonathan Edward Matheny. Vandresar has said her son’s murder led to her getting drunk and causing the fatal crash.

In 2006, Vandresar wrote a letter to 11th Judicial District Judge Kenneth Plotz of Park County, saying she had forgiven Grimes, Tony Dutcher’s best friend. He is currently serving a 60-year sentence at the San Carlos Correctional Facility in Pueblo.

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