Inset: Ann Seidl (Hulke Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services). Background: Addison Bowell at her sentencing hearing (Court TV).
A Wisconsin teenager who fatally struck a woman on an early-morning run has been sentenced to prison.
Addison Bowell, 18, was sentenced to nine years in prison plus seven years of extended supervision after she pleaded guilty to four charges in connection with the hit-and-run death of 54-year-old Ann Seidl. Seidl was on an early-morning run on March 29, 2025, when she was struck by a car driven by Bowell, who was 17 years old at the time.
Bowell's mother found Seidl unresponsive by the mailbox and called 911. When police arrived, Bowell's mother told them that her teenage daughter had come home drunk an hour earlier.
During the sentencing hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors highlighted Bowell's behavior when police questioned her. Bowell told police she "didn't want to deal with this," adding that she had "like 16 underages and couldn't get another one." Police asked Bowell what she drank, to which she responded, "Probably everything," and "It doesn't matter what I was drinking. Completely besides the point."
Bowell told police she "drank a lot" before getting into her vehicle that morning and that "I don't know what I hit, and I don't really care." She blew 0.114 on a preliminary breath test and failed multiple sobriety tests.
After she was arrested, she asked if anyone had died. When she was told that Seidl had died, Bowell said, "[W]ho walks on the road at 3 in the morning? … like … bro." She also asked, "[S]o, am I going to get out or not?"
Police seized Bowell's phone and found that she had taken videos of her car following the crash. She sent the videos to her friends, including one video played at the sentencing that showed Seidl's headband dangling from the car. Bowell was heard laughing and saying, "My door won't open!"
When one of her friends asked what she hit, Bowell said she hit another car "so hard."
After playing the videos, prosecutor Andrea Nodolf said, "This is all just a big joke. While the defendant can change, and I certainly hope that she does change, the only thing that these videos and her past records demonstrate is a desire for her to fulfill her own selfish needs and a complete and utter disregard for others."
Bowell's attorney Michael Cohen countered by saying his client "made it clear she was accepting responsibility. I'm not sure what other actions of responsibility or remorse can be done to express that. I don't know what else people expect, to have someone express remorse or contrition for things that have happened. We don't have H.G. Wells' time machine. We're not going back in time. We're not making this not happen. So all we can do is react to that."
Before her sentence was handed down, Bowell offered an apology, saying, "I know that my words cannot undo what happened, but I hope that with my actions moving forward, I can show that I am committed to learning to become a better person."
Seidl left behind three adult sons, including one with Down syndrome. Seidl's ex-husband and the father of her sons told the court, "Every day I watch him miss his mom, and I can't help explain to him why she is gone."