An Anchorage teenager faces charges of manslaughter and driving under the influence in the hit-and-run crash that killed cyclist Jeffery Dusenbury, according to court documents filed Wednesday in Anchorage Superior Court.
Police reported that Dusenbury, 51, was riding a bicycle on a residential street in South Anchorage the morning of July 19. Going in the same direction was the driver of a black Chevrolet pickup, later identified as 17-year-old Alexandra Ellis. Police say Ellis decided she had gone the wrong way, stopped, backed up, hit Dusenbury and drove off.
Dusenbury died in the hospital within an hour of the crash, police said. He had been wearing a helmet.
Several witnesses gave police a description of the truck and its license plate number.
Police located the pickup a few blocks from the crash site and took a 17-year-old girl into custody but did not release her name. Toxicology reports, which would reveal if the girl was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, would take weeks, police spokeswoman Anita Shell wrote in an email July 22.
Nearly three weeks later, prosecutors have charged Ellis with a DUI. An Anchorage grand jury has charged her with manslaughter and failing to assist an injured person after an accident, a felony.
Ellis' next court date is Friday afternoon at the Nesbett Courthouse.
At an impromptu memorial for Dusenbury the day after the fatal crash, family and friends described him as an avid bicyclist, husband and father of one. He worked as a salesman for Food Services of America.
Dusenbury is one of three Anchorage bicyclists killed in vehicle collisions this year. A 4-year-old girl, Ashley Xiong, was hit in May while riding her two-wheeled bicycle in the Dimond Estates Mobile Home Park. In January, Eldridge Griffith was killed after being hit by a car on Northern Lights Boulevard.