A Puyallup woman pled guilty to an Enumclaw-area vehicular homicide last week, finally bringing a two-year case to a close.

On April 1, 2023, Kimberly Meinen was driving from the Muckleshoot Casino west on sate Route 164 in the early hours of the morning; she was heavily intoxicated, court documents read, and was just escorted out by security.

At the same time, the victim, Clifford Price, was drinking at the Yella Beak Saloon; too impaired to drive, he decided to walk home west on SR 164.

Meinen hit Price shortly after 2:30 a.m., which was when a witness driving east came across Enumclaw police officers — who were already responding an unrelated crash scene — to tell them he saw the man walking in the middle of the highway.

Before he could, though, Meinen collided with the truck from the prior collision and the witness’s car.

EPD arrested Meinen for DUI, not knowing she had killed Price shortly before.

Price was reported missing around 7 a.m.; his body was found an hour later by King County deputies in a field near 228th Avenue SE, along with vehicle parts from Meinen’s car.

By the following day, investigators had identified Meinen as a suspect based on the damage to her car and the correlating vehicle parts found near Price.

Meinen was originally charged with felony hit-and-run, DUI, and reckless driving.

She’s pled guilty on Oct. 15 to a charge of vehicular homicide with disregard for the safety of others and DUI, with the charge of reckless driving being dropped.

The standard range for the former charge is 21 to 27 months in custody and a further year of probation; the state is asking for a year of incarceration and a year of probation.

Restitution was set at nearly $6,000, plus other court fees.