CHP didn’t pursue leads in fatal car crash investigation, says victim’s family

There are issues with the California Highway Patrol’s investigation into a Woodacre car crash that killed four teens, says a victim’s family. The Koren family told the Pacific Sun they are seeking more details about the accident, specifically the circumstances and cause.

Bruce Koren, whose granddaughter, Olive Koren, 14, died in the accident, maintains that the CHP didn’t pursue information provided by some witnesses.

Sienna Katz, 15; Ada Kepley, 15; and Josalynn Osborn, 16, were also killed in the April accident.

Two girls survived. The then 16-year-old driver suffered severe injuries, while passenger Marley Barclay, 14 at the time, had minor injuries. All the girls attended Archie Williams High School in San Anselmo.

Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli filed a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter without gross negligence charge against the teen driver after a CHP investigation determined that speeding caused the Volkswagen Tiguan to veer off the road, hit a redwood tree and catch fire. 

However, the methods used by the CHP to arrive at this conclusion have raised questions (Pacific Sun, “Teen Driver Charged in Fatal Crash, Questions Emerge,” Oct. 28, 2025). And Koren believes there are other problems with the investigation.

“The truth of the matter is, I think we’ve depended on the CHP, and we feel like they let us down,” said Koren.

He cites several reasons for this belief. The first red flag for Koren was the CHP’s rejection of passenger Marley’s statement that she saw bright headlights and another car in their lane before the crash, which caused the Volkswagen driver to swerve and hit a tree. Marley consistently provided similar accounts in multiple CHP interviews.

The initial mention of the bright headlights in the agency’s investigative report noted that Marley was the only occupant of the vehicle able to provide a statement and there were no direct witnesses to the crash. While the report indicates that investigators explored the involvement of another vehicle as a potential contributing factor, it goes on to say that they found no supporting evidence.

Koren said that this theory wasn’t fully investigated, and he thinks it should have been based on Marley’s account and the statements of other parties interviewed by the CHP. According to a witness, two other vehicles were stopped in the middle of the road near the accident.

Witness Jun Yin was the first person on the scene, arriving a minute or two after the crash occurred on April 18 at 7:25pm. Driving in the same westbound direction on San Geronimo Valley Drive as the Volkswagen, but “quite a way” behind it, Yin said that just before she reached the accident site, she encountered an orange truck and a white sedan stopped in the middle of the road, both heading eastbound. The male truck driver was on his cell phone.

These two vehicles, coming from the direction of the crash, could have been racing, or one recklessly passed the other on the curvy two-lane road, Koren posits. Could one of these vehicles have crossed into the Volkswagen’s path? Koren questions why they were stopped in the middle of the road not far from the accident and wonders who the truck driver was calling.

Another witness, arriving after Yin, stayed with Marley until first responders arrived. She reported Marley said that while the girls were riding in the Volkswagen, they observed a vehicle in the middle of the road. Although the witness was not “100% certain,” she believed that Marley was referring to a white sedan.

This is the second mention of a white sedan. Could this be the same one that Yin saw stopped behind an orange truck in the middle of San Geronimo Valley Drive?

And there is also a second report of a suspicious truck—orange or red—in the area around the time of the accident. A Woodacre resident interviewed by the CHP said he was traveling westbound on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard at around 7pm on the night of the crash, closely followed by an older orange or red truck. It appeared to the resident that the truck was joyriding through tiny Woodacre, as he observed it speeding and running a stop sign.

Four witness accounts bring curious coincidences to light: Marley’s report of bright headlights and a vehicle coming at the Volkswagen, Yin’s report of a white sedan and an orange truck stopped in the middle of the road not far from the accident scene, another witness mentioning a white sedan and a resident’s experience with an orange or red truck “joyriding” in the nearby neighborhood less than 30 minutes before the crash.

“I’m not trying to convict the red truck driver; I’m just trying to understand why the CHP didn’t pursue information from statements given by eyewitnesses who saw a red [or orange] truck and possibly a white sedan,” Koren said.

The CHP report details that investigators collected video footage from security cameras and Flock system cameras in the area. A red truck was observed in a video at 7-Eleven on Sir Francis Drake heading eastbound within minutes of the crash.

Two red trucks were also found on the Flock camera automated license plate readers at Sir Francis Drake and Old Railroad Grade Road. The report does not indicate that the CHP followed up with the owners of those vehicles, despite having the license plate numbers.  However, at least one CHP officer left open the possibility of a second vehicle’s involvement.

“My investigative findings do not allow for a definitive conclusion regarding another vehicle’s presence or its relevance to the investigation,” CHP officer Tyler Launer wrote in the report.

Koren remains puzzled as to why the CHP did not continue to follow up. Almost as disturbing, when he contacted captain Amy Newton of the Marin area CHP, she informed him that the Flock camera data had not been retained as evidence.

Newton declined to answer the Pacific Sun’s questions, stating that the DA’s office has “continued to object to the release of the investigation.”

The Koren family desperately wants to know what happened on San Geronimo Valley Drive. They believe answers should be provided.

“Don’t our girls deserve a full professional investigation and follow up on the information the CHP had in their possession or could have gotten?” asked Gail Koren, Olive’s grandmother.