Savanna Koeckeritz (obituary), Lance Koeckeritz (Facebook), Lexi Gibson (obituary)
A Minnesota father called it “mind-blowing” and “devastating” this week that the top prosecutor in Washington County is pursuing manslaughter and child endangerment charges against him for the 800cc engine ATV rollover crash deaths more than a year ago of his 10-year-old daughter and her 10-year-old best friend on the family’s Afton-area property.
Lance Koeckeritz, a 54-year-old husband and father of six surviving children, expressed his astonishment about the charges brought by County Attorney Kevin Magnuson in an interview with the Star Tribune, saying that the April 22, 2023, deaths of his daughter Savanna and her friend from school Lexi Gibson were the result of a “freak accident.”
“Us and the kids have hundreds of hours on four-wheelers. It’s the way we all grew up,” he said. “There wasn’t a lack of confidence in [Savanna’s] abilities. She was making a left-hand turn, and a wheel got caught in a divot. It was just unforeseen.”
The father said it was “devastating” and “mind-blowing” that Magnuson issued a manslaughter case summons when his family and Gibson’s family have already suffered so much.
“[W]e lost our daughter and her friend. It’s devastating,” he said, according to the report. “The fact that the county prosecutor would even be contemplating charges is mind-blowing. Isn’t it enough that my other kids have lost our daughter due to a freak accident?”
In April 2023, Lance Koeckeritz posted on Facebook that Savanna and her “BFF” from school Lexi went out of for the ATV ride and that Lexi had planned to “spend the weekend with her and go to a movie on Saturday.”
“At approx 5pm both girls were found, the 4 wheeler had rolled over on top of them and they were not breathing,” he wrote. “Continued CPR was preformed, at approx 5:45 EMT’s discontinued efforts as directed […] and [the girls] were pronounced gone.
In a separate post, he thanked everyone for their prayers and revealed his family’s devastation.
“As you can imagine, there is no such thing as ‘are you ok’, or ‘how are you doing’…. the answer is ‘barely functioning,”” Koeckeritz said. “As a few have expressed having a loss of a child of their own can relate because it is a completely different grief versus when someone older passes who has had a chance to enjoy at least part of their life before passing.”
He added that Savanna “brought so much joy and smiles to every person she was in contact with” and was “always happy.”
But prosecutors in Washington County have now revealed a starkly different view that the deadly crash on the 8.4-acre property was not merely a “freak accident,” but was traceable to Koeckeritz’s alleged neglect or endangerment of the children.
Prosecutors allege that while Savanna’s mother, the defendant’s wife, was at work, Lance Koeckeritz was inside his office trailer from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m., a trailer that detectives “observed to be […] nearly soundproof where they could barely hear yelling directly outside the trailer door.”
But when Koeckeritz’s wife got home ready to go take the girls to see a movie, she couldn’t find Savanna and Lexi.
“J.R.K. planned to bring VICTIM 1 and VICTIM 2 to a movie at 5:15 p.m.. J.R.K. had communicated her plans to KOECKERITZ earlier in the day, and around 4:00 p.m. requested another child at the home get VICTIM 1 and VICTIM 2 ready for the movie,” the complaint said. By 4:15 p.m., J.R.K. arrived at the home and was unable to locate VICTIM 1 or VICTIM 2 despite searching for them for over 15 minutes.”
The complaint said that another child was the one who found Savanna and Lexi “pinned under the ATV unconscious,” and “both [were] cold and blue.” An autopsy determined that both girls died of asphyxiation, authorities said.
Lance Koeckeritz, meanwhile, allegedly “remained in the work trailer until he was informed of the emergency subsequent to VICTIM 1 and VICTIM 2 being located.”
Neither Savanna nor Lexi had “any protective gear (helmets, pads, etc.),” the complaint said, also pointing to Minnesota Department of Natural Resources off-highway vehicle regulations for children ages 10 and 11.
Those rules say that “[e]veryone under age 18 who is a passenger on or operator of an ATV must wear a DOT-certified helmet” and 2) that the ATV riders at age 10 “[m]ay operate an ATV only on private property with permission of the owner.”
Koeckeritz “informed detectives the children are allowed to operate the ATV whenever they wanted, and it is not necessary for them to check in with him or ask permission,” the complaint said. “Further, he stated, ‘the girls would take the ATV for brief periods at a time’ and that they would return to a camper located on the property or the residence.’”
Authorities further alleged that the ATV Savanna and Lexi rode that day had an 800cc engine, when the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recommends a 110cc engine for children ages 10 and 11.
Lexi Gibson was remembered in an obituary for her “infectious laugh and brilliant smile.”
“She loved space and the northern lights and hanging out with her mom,” the obit said. “Lexi possessed wisdom beyond her years.”
The Washington County Attorney’s Office declined to comment when reached by Law&Crime. It’s unclear at this time if Koeckeritz has an attorney.
Read the complaint here.
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