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One dead in suspected drunk driving crash in Allegan Co.

Posted at 11:49 AM, May 16, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-16 15:28:26-04

WAYLAND, Mich. – One person is dead and another is facing drunk driving charges after a bizarre crash from over the weekend.

Jemimah Palsce, 36, of Albuquerque, New Mexico, died in the crash on 135th Avenue near 4th Street Saturday morning.

The Allegan County Sheriff says that early Saturday morning, an officer with the Gun Lake Tribal Police Department was traveling southbound on US-131 when he was passed by another vehicle driving recklessly.  The officer contacted dispatch to alert them of the reckless driver.

Shortly after, an Allegan County deputy say the vehicle left US-131 and headed east on 135th Avenue. That deputy tried to pull the vehicle over, but the driver, identified as 53-year-old Dale Robert Melick of Wayland, accelerated and led the deputy on a chase.

The deputy lost sight of the vehicle, but then found it rolled over in ditch on 135th Avenue near 4th Street.  Melick was trapped, but deputies say he was belligerent and uncooperative. He was taken to the hospital and treated and released.

He has been charged with operating while intoxicated causing death and operating while intoxicated causing serious injury.

While at that scene, another person called 911 to report a rollover in the same area and that a car had been struck by another vehicle and then rolled over.

Deputies and an officer from the Wayland Police Department searched and found a second vehicle rolled over in a dense area of trees.  They found that car had three people inside, two were trapped and one had been ejected.  Palsce was pronounced dead at the scene.  The other two people were taken to Spectrum Butterworth Hospital where they are in serious and critical condition.

The crash remains under investigation.