No Deal: Eyewitness to Girl's Death Takes Back Reward Money

by MEG JONES

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Staff

The one and only eyewitness to the hit-and-run death of a young Wood County girl said Thursday he had taken back $500 he donated for a reward to catch the killer because the victim’s family is accusing him of being a suspect.

Jim Vruwink, of Arpin, was driving on a rural highway at dusk on March 24 when, he said, he saw a car strike Deidre Week, 11. She was riding her bicycle a few blocks from her Town of Hansen home, about 10 minutes north-west of Wisconsin Rapids.

Vruwink, 31, said he turned his vehicle around and chased after the car that hit Deidre but could not catch up to it and get a license plate number.

He donated $500 to set up a fund for a reward leading to the arrest of the motorist and aid the family. However, earlier this week he took the money back, leaving about $2,700 in the fund as of Thursday.

No one has been arrested in Deidre’s death. Wood County Sheriff Brian Illingworth said Vruwink passed a lie detector test when questioned about the accident.

“The polygraph showed he was not the driver of the vehicle, nor did he know who the driver was. So after taking the test and all the criticism he decided to take the money back,” Illingworth said.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Vruwink said the family was “accusing me and saying I’m a suspect n the case because I went out of my way and risked my life and went after the person who hit their daughter and granddaughter.”

“I’m just sick and tired of being accused and blamed. I’m sick of people calling up in the middle of the night and hanging up,” said Vruwink, who owns a used car dealership in Vesper. “They have no one to point their finger at so they’re pointing their finger at me.”

Deidre’s mother, Brenda Week, said the family had many questions about what Vruwink saw and did when their daughter died.

“He was the only one at the scene. He was not just a witness but a suspect. There are a lot of questions he couldn’t answer,” Week said Thursday.

“My husband was also outside; he heard the impact and saw the vehicles drive by. Jim Vruwink was in one of the vehicles. What he (her husband) heard just doesn’t match.”

Week said she wasn’t surprised Vruwink asked for the reward’s return.

“I figured he would ask for it back, and if he wasn’t we were going to give it to him,” she said.

Vruwink said he hired an attorney when asked to take a lie detector test and to deal with accusations that he had been involved in the girl’s death. He told investigators to check his cars for any damage.

But later he heard rumors where people “said you must have a hell of a body man out there” at his used car business, Vruwink said.

“People don’t take that into consideration of seeing something like that – how tragic it is. You’re just supposed to get up and forget about it. Well, you don’t forget something like that, seeing a little girl killed.”

Week said Vrwuink attended Deidre’s wake, candlelight vigil and funeral. She and her husband, Dave, were so appreciative they sent him a dozen pink roses, a photo of Deidre and a handwritten note.

“We have hugged these people,” Week said. “It wasn’t until two weeks afterwards that neighbors and friends started saying, ‘This was what I saw and heard’ and things just don’t check out.”

She said her family – including her husband and two sons, ages 2 and 13 – still was struggling to cope with Deidre’s death. This weekend is one son’s birthday and she said Deidre “was the one who played ‘Happy Birthday’ on the piano.”

“I can look out the window any minute of the day and see where it happened,” she said. “We drive by the spot when we go into town.”