Forest Lake police sergeant killed in UTV crash in Wisconsin
Aug. 23—A sergeant with the Forest Lake Police Department died Saturday night in a utility-terrain vehicle accident in Burnett County, Wis.
"It is with an extremely heavy heart that we have to notify you that Forest Lake Police Department Sergeant Kurt Kowarsch died from a crash while operating a UTV while visiting his cabin and property in Wisconsin over the weekend," Forest Lake officials wrote in a Facebook post. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his family."
Kowarsch, 42, was a 14-year veteran of the department. Prior to joining the Forest Lake Police Department, he worked at the Washington County Sheriff's Office and the Annandale Police Department.
According to the Burnett County, Wis., Sheriff's office, deputies responded around 8:50 p.m. Saturday to calls of a 2021 Honda UTV on fire in the ditch on Tower Road in the Town of Swiss, Wis.
The name of the man was not released pending confirmation of dental records, a spokeswoman for the department said.
"It appeared that the vehicle had lost control going northbound and struck multiple trees on the driver's side prior to starting on fire," according to a news release from Burnett County Sheriff's Office.
The lone occupant was pronounced dead at the scene by the Burnett County Medical Examiner's Office; a preliminary autopsy report showed that the male occupant was deceased prior to the UTV starting on fire, the release stated.
Danbury Fire Department, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, St. Croix Tribal Police, Webster Police and North Ambulance assisted with the call.
"We would like to thank the many citizens that located the crash and assisted, as well as all the named responding agencies," the release stated.
Kowarsch was featured in a 2017 article in the Pioneer Press. The headline of the article was "I'm trying to pull over a helicopter ... that's trying to take off at the airport."
Kowarsch is survived by his wife, Ashley, who serves as the school resource officer at East Ridge High School in Woodbury, and their daughter, Lauren.
The couple's infant daughter, Brooke, died in 2011 at a home day care in Lindstrom; the day-care provider, who was not licensed, was initially charged with murder and manslaughter, but later acquitted by a jury in Chisago County District Court.
Friends on Monday started a GoFundMe fundraising site to raise money for the family.
