A Central Texas investigation that stretched across nearly two months has ended with two men in custody, closing in on the answers behind a chaotic freeway death that left a young woman dead on Interstate 14.
Elwood Dentler, 22, of Fort Hood, and James Arthur Stevens, 64, of Copperas Cove, now face felony charges in connection with the July 22 auto-pedestrian crash that killed 25-year-old Faith L. Sidman of Springfield, Oregon. The case wound through false statements, a fleeing driver and repaired collision damage before the Killeen Police Department’s Traffic Unit brought both arrests to a conclusion this week.
Breaking down the fatal sequence
The final moments unfolded in a rapid, devastating chain. Officers first responded around 10:43 p.m. to a report of an auto-pedestrian crash on westbound Interstate 14 near Rosewood Drive, and the severity prompted the Traffic Unit to take over the investigation. What they pieced together painted a grim picture of how quickly an argument turned deadly.
Investigators determined that Sidman had been a back-seat passenger in a gray 2019 GMC pickup driven by Dentler. During a verbal argument inside the vehicle, she left the moving pickup as it traveled westbound, and Dentler continued on with a front-seat passenger…