{"id":44691,"date":"2021-09-17T21:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-18T03:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/towaoc-man-faces-vehicular-homicide-charge-in-crash-south-of-cortez\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:20:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:20:59","slug":"towaoc-man-faces-vehicular-homicide-charge-in-crash-south-of-cortez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/towaoc-man-faces-vehicular-homicide-charge-in-crash-south-of-cortez\/","title":{"rendered":"Towaoc man faces vehicular homicide charge in crash south of Cortez"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Alden
Alden P. House faces charges of vehicular homicide in a crash south of Cortez that killed his passenger. (Courtesy 22nd Judicial District Attorney's Office)<\/span>Courtesy 22nd Judicial District Attorney<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Alden P. House, accused of causing a fatal crash that killed a passenger Monday, faces felony charges of DUI vehicular homicide and assault, according to the 22nd Judicial District Attorney\u2019s Office in Cortez.<\/p>\n

House, of Towaoc, is in custody in Montezuma County Detention Center on a $500,000 bond.<\/p>\n

According to Colorado State Patrol officer Josh Lewis and an arrest affidavit, House was driving northbound in a blue Hyundai Sonata at mile marker 32 when he attempted to make a left turn, entered the southbound land and collided with a southbound red 2009 Ford F150 pickup.<\/p>\n

House\u2019s passenger in the Hyundai, Robin Frost, 32, died at the scene, Lewis said.<\/p>\n

Frost was wearing a seat belt, and House was not, according to the crash report. Both were both ejected from the Hyundai, and House was taken to Southwest Memorial Hospital.<\/p>\n

Alcohol consumption by House was considered a factor in the crash, Lewis said.<\/p>\n

The driver and passengers of the Ford pickup were treated for injuries at the scene, according to the affidavit, but were not taken to the hospital.<\/p>\n

The driver of the Ford pickup initially did not report a serious injury, said assistant DA Will Furse, but sought medical attention the next day, leading to the charge of vehicular assault.<\/p>\n

Passengers in the pickup included two children, ages 5 and 2. They had been secured in car seats and did not appear to have serious injuries, Lewis said.<\/p>\n

According to the affidavit, a state trooper reported open containers of alcohol were in the Hyundai. No proof of insurance was found, and it was later confirmed that House does not possess a valid driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

When visited at the hospital, the trooper reported a \u201cstrong odor\u201d of alcohol coming from House. House told the trooper he was attempting to turn left into the Eagle Claw liquor store, according to the affidavit. A search warrant was obtained to seize three vials of blood from House, and results of a blood alcohol test are pending, Furse said.<\/p>\n

A protection order prohibits House from purchasing or consuming alcoholic beverages or controlled substances, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

The State Patrol originally suspected House of charges including DUI vehicular homicide, DUI, violation of restraining order, careless driving causing injury, driving without a driver\u2019s license, operating an uninsured motor vehicle and drinking from\/possessing an open alcoholic beverage container in a motor vehicle.<\/p>\n

Formal charges are expected to be filed at House\u2019s next court hearing, 8:30 a.m. Oct. 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P. House also faces felony charge of vehicular assault<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[924,168,255,28,29,254,538,144],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alcohol","tag-crime","tag-death-and-dying","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-road-crash","tag-southwest-memorial-hospital","tag-towaoc"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86189,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44691\/revisions\/86189"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44691"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}