A 37-year-old New London woman is facing charges after leading Fond du Lac County deputies on a chase that hit roughly 120 miles per hour before spike strips near Lost Arrow Road helped bring it to an end early Monday morning. She was booked into the Fond du Lac County Jail following the pursuit, which began when a Wisconsin State Patrol trooper spotted her SUV speeding south on Interstate 41.
According to WBAY, the Fond du Lac County Communications Center received the initial report around 2:50 a.m. Monday, when the trooper radioed that he was chasing a Ford Edge at high speed south on I-41 near County Highway N along the same corridor, as detailed by FOX6 Milwaukee. The trooper eventually terminated the pursuit near the Winnebago Street area, but the chase wasn't over.
A Fond du Lac County sheriff's sergeant spotted the same SUV near Highway 151 and picked up the pursuit again, heading south toward Lost Arrow Road, per FOX6 Milwaukee's account of the agency hand-off. That's when the driver increased her speed to about 120 mph, according to the sheriff's office's report to WBAY.
Spike Strips Slow the SUV Near Lost Arrow Road
Deputies had prepared tire-deflation sticks and laid them across the highway at Lost Arrow Road, and the SUV ran over them, slowing slightly, WBAY reports. The SUV slowed after the devices were used and later came to a stop near Highway B, where the woman was arrested without further incident, the station notes.
These hollow-quill spike strips are designed to puncture tires and release air at a controlled rate, letting a fleeing vehicle slow gradually rather than blow out suddenly at highway speeds, per a technical explainer from Police1. Deploying them manually means officers must position themselves ahead of a target and throw the strips, exposing themselves to danger, the outlet notes.
The woman was checked at a hospital afterward, according to the same WBAY report. The Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office expects to file charges of fleeing or eluding an officer and possession of drug paraphernalia, in addition to multiple traffic citations the office says she had already accumulated.
Multiple Warrants Across County and State Lines
Beyond the pending local charges, the woman was being held on active warrants out of Milwaukee County and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, according to FOX6 Milwaukee's reporting. Department of Corrections warrants typically stem from probation or parole supervision violations, though the specific violations behind these warrants remain unclear.
Fleeing or eluding an officer after a visual or audible signal is classified as a Class I felony under Wisconsin Statute § 346.04(3), carrying a potential sentence of up to 3.5 years in prison and fines as high as $10,000, according to a legal overview from the Van Severen Law Office. Prosecutors can pursue additional charges for endangering others, the firm notes, though it remains unresolved whether Fond du Lac County prosecutors will pursue enhanced charges given the reported speeds in this case.
A Familiar Stretch of Highway
The Lost Arrow Road stretch of I-41 was part of the route described in this case.
Just six days earlier, deputies used a tire-deflation device near Highway B on Highway 175 to end a separate pursuit involving a 20-year-old Fox Lake man who reached speeds up to 80 mph, according to KFIZ. That incident also ended in a high-risk stop and a Taser deployment, the outlet reported.
In May, Fond du Lac County deputies assisted State Patrol in another I-41 pursuit that began with an attempted traffic stop over an active felony warrant, a chase during which the suspect's vehicle reportedly went airborne over traffic before his arrest, according to FOX 13 Seattle. Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt reported in March that the county had already logged nine high-speed pursuits in less than the first three months of 2026 alone, underscoring how frequently drivers have chosen to flee rather than stop on the region's highways.
All Wisconsin agencies operating emergency vehicles are legally required to maintain formal, written pursuit policies under Wisconsin Statute § 346.03(6), guidelines meant to help officers weigh the danger of continuing a chase against the risk of letting a suspect escape, according to the UW-Green Bay Police Department.
