A 51-year-old woman from Wild Rose, Wisconsin, riding as a passenger on a motorcycle, was killed on Sunday evening, November 8, in a hit-and-run crash on State Highway 22 in the Town of Belmont, Portage County, near the Waushara County line, according to the Portage County Sheriff's Office, as reported by WSAU News on November 9. The motorcycle's operator suffered minor injuries. The driver of the passenger vehicle that collided with the motorcycle left the scene.
Source: WSAU News via 94.7 The Beast
Officers were called to State Highway 22 near the Waushara County line at about 5:15 p.m. on Sunday — well after sunset in central Wisconsin at this time of year. Deputies caught up to the suspected vehicle in neighbouring Waushara County and arrested the driver, identified as Jose Zuniga, 30, of Wautoma. Zuniga is being held in the Portage County Jail, awaiting a court appearance, WSAU reported. The allegations against him are accusations, not findings: he is presumed innocent unless and until the state proves its case in court.
The charges investigators are seeking
Zuniga was arrested on suspicion of operating while intoxicated (OWI), hit-and-run causing injury, and homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle, according to the sheriff's office reporting. Investigators are requesting those charges; the decision on what is formally filed rests with the Portage County District Attorney, and as of Monday morning formal filing had not been confirmed in the reporting. Homicide by intoxicated use of a motor vehicle is a felony under Wisconsin law, and a hit-and-run driver in Wisconsin has a legal duty to stop, give information and render reasonable assistance — the duty investigators say was not met here.
A two-county response on a rural highway
First responders from Wild Rose, Waushara County agencies, the Portage County Medical Examiner and the Wisconsin State Patrol all responded to the scene, WSAU reported; other reporting on the sheriff's account also listed Aspirus MedEvac and Gold Cross Ambulance among the agencies that assisted. The woman who died had not been publicly identified in the reporting available on Monday; the medical examiner's office is the agency that ordinarily confirms and releases a victim's name after family notification. How the two vehicles came together — direction of travel, point of impact, and what evidence led deputies to the vehicle stopped in Waushara County — has not been described in the public reporting so far, and toxicology results, if any were taken, have not been released.
The investigation remains active, the sheriff's office says. That means the public record on Monday is a frame, not a finished account: an arrest on stated suspicions, a death confirmed by responders, and the central questions — the mechanics of the collision and the formal charges — still with investigators and prosecutors.
Background: Highway 22, Wautoma and Wild Rose
State Highway 22 is a two-lane rural highway running through the farm country of central Wisconsin, linking the small communities of Waushara and Portage counties, including Wautoma — the Waushara County seat, and Zuniga's home town — and Wild Rose, the village the woman who died came from. The Town of Belmont sits in southwestern Portage County, hard against the Waushara County line, which is why a crash investigated by one county's sheriff ended with an arrest in the other. Early November is the tail of Wisconsin's motorcycle season: by 5:15 p.m. on November 8 the road was fully dark, the condition riders and drivers both face on unlit rural highways at this time of year.
Everything attributed to the sheriff's office about the driver's conduct — intoxication, leaving the scene — is an allegation at this stage. Formal charges, a bond decision and any plea are court steps that have not happened yet in the public record, and the crash investigation itself is still active.
For the small communities along this stretch of Highway 22, a fatal hit-and-run is not an abstraction: the victim and the arrested man come from villages a short drive apart, and the case will be handled by the same county institutions — sheriff, medical examiner, district attorney and circuit court — that serve both. For riders, the case is a late-season reminder of the exposure a motorcycle passenger carries: the operator in this crash survived with minor injuries; the passenger did not survive at all.
What happens next: Zuniga is expected to make an initial court appearance in Portage County, where a judge will address bond and the formal charges the district attorney decides to file. The sheriff's office investigation continues, and the Portage County Medical Examiner is expected to confirm the victim's identity once family notification is complete. Awaaz Punjab will update this story when charges are filed or the victim is named.