By Kris Leonhardt

Editor

MARSHFIELD — The snowmobile used in the Feb. 12 crash that resulted in the death of Robert Kurz, Loyal, was determined to be stolen.

According to the criminal complaint, Steven Lauenstein, 46, Loyal, and Kurz, 34, had been at the Little Club Bar in Spencer. An employee of the bar told investigators that the pair spent a couple of hours at the establishment and consumed two “Windsor and Coke doubles.”

When Lauenstein and Kurz left the bar around 1:30 a.m. on Feb. 12, they found that their snowmobile would not start, and they left on a 1998 Polaris snowmobile that they had not been given consent to use.

Lauenstein was driving the snowmobile when he rolled over off the trail and struck a group of trees, fatally injuring his passenger. He walked to a home at around 6:45 a.m. and reported the crash.

Lauenstein is being charged with two felony counts of operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent and homicide by intoxicated use of a vehicle.

Lauenstein made his first court appearance Feb. 22 without an attorney. The court date is rescheduled for March 16. He remains in jail under a $7,500 cash bond.