New Information In Fatal Crash

The California Highway Patrol now says the man killed in the solo vehicle crash on Highway 120 near Tulloch Road this week was not the driver as authorities first believed.

CHP spokesman officer Tom Wills told MyMotherLode.com Thursday the autopsy revealed seatbelt patterns on the victim 49 year-old Roy Nordfelt placed him as right front passenger in the car. He was first believed to have been the driver, killed in that crash.

Authorities then questioned passenger, 20 year old Shelly Tyson at Doctors´s Medical Center in Modesto. That questioning along with other investigation by officers confirmed that 23 year-old Jeremy Orr of Modesto was the driver of the 2003 Eclipse that flipped.

“He had been using methamphetamine all night,” Wills said. “They were traveling at a high rate of speed,” when the accident occurred.

Wills says Orr suffered minor injuries. He was a parolee and was arrested at the time of the accident on drug charges. He is in custody on those charges, but now more charges will be added.

“What we will be seeking on him, as well as the drug charges, is the felony DUI causing death and vehicular manslaughter with a felony attached because of the gross negligence,” Wills said.