She Crashed Her SUV Into a Child’s Birthday Party ｜ Marshella Chidester Interrogation
October 5, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readOn April 20, 2024, Marshella Chidester drove her Ford Edge SUV into the Swan Boat Club in Berlin Township, Michigan, during a child’s birthday party. Two children were killed and 15 other people were injured. The interrogation audio released after her conviction captures investigators trying to reconstruct the hours before the crash, as Chidester—who had a blood alcohol level of 0.21, more than 2.5 times the legal limit—insists she remembers almost nothing.
The Interrogation Opens with Miranda and a Request for a Timeline
The recording begins with Detective Jeff reading Chidester her Miranda rights. She signs the waiver and agrees to talk. He asks her to walk through her day from the beginning, describing it as assembling a puzzle. She says she met friends Peter and Brenda Watkin for lunch at a restaurant called Vernus around 11:30 a.m., where she had a cup of chili and a glass of Chardonnay. She says she drove herself there and then drove to the boat club. But when the detective asks what she remembers next, she says, "Waking up in the patrol car." She tells him she has no recollection of anything between leaving Vernus and waking up in police custody.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:03) **Introduction to the Case** - The host sets up the tragedy: on April 20, 2024, an SUV crashed into a child's birthday party at the Swan Boat Club in Berlin Township, Michigan, killing two children and injuring 15 others. The episode will feature the police interrogation of the driver, Marshella Chidester.
- 2 (01:25) **Interrogation Begins: Miranda Rights and Initial Setup** - Detectives Jeff and Josh read Marshella her Miranda rights, and she agrees to speak with them, waiving her rights.
- 3 (04:59) **Marshella's Initial Account of Her Day** - Marshella begins recounting her day, starting with lunch with friends at Vernas.
- 4 (09:31) **The Timeline Gap is Exposed** - Detective Jeff reveals surveillance footage places her at the boat club at 3:00 PM, not 12:10 PM, creating a significant three-hour gap in her story.
- 5 (11:22) **The Phone and the Car** - The detectives ask for permission to search her iPhone and her car's Event Data Recorder (EDR) to help fill in the timeline.
- 6 (18:01) **Returning to the Missing Time and Drinking Habits** - The detective presses Marshella to think harder about the three-hour gap and begins to probe her drinking habits.
- 7 (23:09) **Confronting the Blood Alcohol Level** - The detective directly confronts Marshella with the scientific impossibility of her claimed alcohol intake.
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Show Notes
In this police interrogation, investigators question Marshella Chidester about the hours before her SUV crashed into a birthday party at the Swan Boat Club. They ask about her movements, alcohol consumption, and recollection of the crash.
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