By Eric Francis

9/15/23

WHITE RIVER JUNCTION - A naked Hartford woman who police said “appeared to be experiencing a mental health crisis” wreaked havoc around Ballardvale Drive early Thursday morning before briefly forcing the closure of parts of the Interstates 91 and 89 interchange.

Mike Roberts, a clerk at Bob’s Service Center, was one of the first to spot the resident, who was described as middle-aged, because he noticed she was “kinda dancing and acting abnormal” as she walked toward the business at 9 a.m.

“She proceeded to climb up on top of one of our customer’s vehicles—I wasn’t sure if it was hers or not at the time—and then she laid on the roof like she was sunbathing,” Roberts recalled.

“A few minutes later she sat up and started to take off all of her clothes. She stripped down stark naked and then started dancing and walking across the parking lot toward the Jasmin Auto Body.  I lost sight of her but a few minutes later we heard a lot of commotion and a couple of loud impacts and then we witnessed a car drive away with a severe amount of damage to the front of it,” Roberts said.

Debris, including license plates and bumper parts, can be seen in front of the three parked vehicles that were hit when the woman fled the Jasmin Auto Body parking lot in the stolen car. Eric Francis photo.

Debris, including license plates and bumper parts, can be seen in front of the three parked vehicles that were hit when the woman fled the Jasmin Auto Body parking lot in the stolen car. Eric Francis photo.

Hartford police were already heading to the area to check on the woman, who had been described by callers as appearing to be high on something, when she pulled open a back door at Jasmin Auto Body and strode into their large repair bay where a half dozen technicians were already busy working on cars Thursday morning.

“This naked lady just walks in and opens the door to a car, gets in it, and starts it up,” technician Dylan Lewis explained a short time later, still seeming a bit stunned by the morning’s events.  “It happened so fast.

“My buddy Doug grabbed the keys off the top of the car and I went to shut the open door but she came flying, almost hit me, went through the garage door, hit three cars in the lot and took off.”

The door on the back of the Jasmin Auto Body repair bay was bent outwards when the woman crashed through it in the stolen car. Eric Francis photo.

The door on the back of the Jasmin Auto Body repair bay was bent outwards when the woman crashed through it in the stolen car. Eric Francis photo.

Lewis said he had to dive out of the way to avoid being run over and the last the Jasmin crew saw of the stolen black Toyota C-HR it was headed up the on-ramp onto the southbound lanes of Interstate 91.

“We’ve had a rough day obviously.  This stuff shouldn’t be happening in Vermont,” business owner Josh Jasmin said.

Moments after the car disappeared out of sight around the corner of the on-ramp, police began getting calls of a rollover accident on the interstate and quickly put together that the incidents were connected.

The stolen car had struck a large Carroll Concrete cement truck before flipping over and “traveling for a considerable distance on its roof before coming to a stop” on the southbound I-91 bridge that passes directly over Interstate 89, Hartford police reported.

Crews removed the wrecked Toyota C-HR that had been stolen and got the cement truck safely removed before reopening both southbound lanes. Eric Francis photo.

Crews removed the wrecked Toyota C-HR that had been stolen and got the cement truck safely removed before reopening both southbound lanes. Eric Francis photo.

“As officers arrived on scene of the crash, Hartford firefighters reported the woman jumped from the I-91 overpass onto I-89 Southbound,” police continued.

At first the woman was described as lying on the pavement but as police made their way down to her she was sitting up and talking to officers, who eventually helped her into a Hartford ambulance, which then transported her to the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

“Given the suspected mental health crisis component to this case, the identity of the woman is not being released at this time,” police said in a release Thursday afternoon; however, police also noted that an application for an arrest warrant on various charges connected to the chaos Thursday morning is also “likely.”

Police shut down the southbound side of Interstate 91 right at the interchange with Interstate 89 in White River Junction for about a half an hour until the wreckage was cleared from the roadway. Eric Francis photo

Police shut down the southbound side of Interstate 91 right at the interchange with Interstate 89 in White River Junction for about a half an hour until the wreckage was cleared from the roadway. Eric Francis photo