Police report details the Stephanie Meier tragedy

The driver of city of Spokane maintenance vehicle knew he was driving over a pile of stuff when he was pulling into a private driveway near a vacant lot at the intersection of Geiger and Lewis. He'd parked there every day for the past two weeks. It was the beginning of March, and it had been snowing the night before, covering everything — vehicles, blankets, cardboard, the ground, the sleeping bag — in a thin layer of frost and snow. Everything, according to a police report recently obtained by the Inlander, looked an indistinguishable white.  

But the driver knew he was driving over something. He thought it was the "garbage or clothes" that he'd seen strewn about the area before. He didn't know that under the pile of clothes was a woman named Stephanie Renee Meier, who was an artist, a former skiing star, a mother, a daughter and a sister. 

Even when the front and rear left tires of his 26,000-pound truck drove over her, the driver didn't know what had happened. 

But his coworker heard someone scream, "Oh my god! Oh my god!" The coworker says he ran beside the driver, yelling at him that he'd hit someone. The driver was in "disbelief." Both the driver and his coworker began to give her CPR, and call for medics.

When medical personnel, including a fire truck and an ambulance, arrived, they tried to save her, too. She stopped breathing, and they got her breathing again. But her blood pressure was low. They were worried she wouldn't survive. Ultimately, she didn't. 

The police, meanwhile, tried to find out who she was. Above the accident site, they found her black briefcase at a homeless camp. Inside, the police found Social Security paperwork for Stephanie R. Meier. 

The driver was given a sobriety test, including drawn blood, but did not show any signs of impairment. The police also examined the vehicle, and found it to be in compliance. 

Read the entire police report below.

Meier Police Report