Altoona Police have arrested the woman who crashed her car while driving under the influence nearly one year ago, killing her 5-year old son.
Christen Walter was driving her son to school, when she lost control of her vehicle and hit a light pole along Logan Boulevard, according to police.
Walter is facing several charges, including homicide by vehicle while driving under the influence.
It took officers and attorneys one year and 19 days to compile enough evidence to arrest Walter Tuesday because they needed to reconstruct the scene to consider several factors.
Police were also waiting on toxicology reports as Walter admitted to having used bath salts and cocaine in previous weeks.
Her husband told police she had a recurring struggle with drug addiction.
Toxicology reports confirmed there were opiates in her system at the time of the crash. From then on, police waited to solidify other information and waited for other warrants to come back.
Police said there were text messages on her phone proving she sold and used drugs, too, but that it was difficult to track her down saying they needed help from family members to get in touch with her.
“Vehicular reconstruction accidents investigations are extremely time sensitive,” Pratt said. “Given the time of year that this occurred in to allow for the State Police to come out and actually do roadway tests, we had to wait for the inclement weather to go away. There were a lot of technical issues involving prescription medications and things that she may or may not have been prescribed.”
In court, the judge said Walter lied multiple times about her drug addiction, an important factor in the case.