Woman sentenced to 4 years for crash that killed Abigail Anderson in 2021

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (FOX 9) - The woman who fatally struck Abigail Anderson while driving impaired in 2021 was sentenced on Friday after pleading guilty to vehicular homicide in September. 

According to court documents, Melinda Dotray, 47, was sentenced to 48 months in prison with credit for 13 days served. She initially faced multiple charges, but four of five of the charges were dropped after she pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide. 

Anderson was the sister to the late track star, Gabriele "Gabe" Grunewald, who died of cancer in 2019. 

According to the original charges, Anderson was killed on the evening of Aug. 14, 2021, in Falcon Heights near Cleveland Avenue and Larpenteur Avenue when a truck hit a parked vehicle, which struck Anderson, who was walking nearby. Bystanders helped Anderson, but she was later pronounced dead at the hospital. 

Court documents say Dotray's truck crashed through a fence and ended up on the Les Boland Golf Course before returning to the road. According to charges, witnesses told officers it appeared the truck ran over Anderson as the driver tried to turn around. 

Dotray was arrested at the scene, and blood tests showed she had meth and fentanyl in her system at the time of the crash, charges explain. The Minnesota State Patrol estimated that Dotray was traveling between 64 mph in a 40 mph zone at the time of the crash, and there was no evidence that she tried to brake beforehand. 

Anderson, a nurse, was studying at the University of Minnesota to get her Ph.D. before her death.