Virginia man convicted in Bois Forte woman's hit-and-run death

A federal jury in Duluth found Eric Scott Peterson, 51, of Virginia guilty in the death of Amanda Boshey, 38, after prosecutors said a night of drinking ended with a hit-and-run on the Bois Forte Indian Reservation.

Jurors deliberated for about five hours before convicting Peterson on one count of criminal vehicular homicide in a negligent manner while under the influence of alcohol. They acquitted him on a second count alleging he had an alcohol concentration of 0.08 or more within two hours of driving.

The crash happened Dec. 17, 2024, near Fortune Bay Casino on Lake Vermilion Reservation Road. Boshey, an enrolled member of the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, was found in the snow after St. Louis County 911 received calls about an apparently intoxicated woman walking near the area around Tibbets Trail. Local reporting described Boshey as a mother of five and a laborer for Whitebird Services out of Local 1091, making her death especially painful in the Bois Forte community and among family and coworkers who knew her by name.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Peterson had been drinking at the casino before the crash. Earlier reporting said he told law enforcement he thought he had struck a deer and did not stop to check. Investigators linked his blue Dodge Durango to the collision through surveillance footage and vehicle debris, a trail of evidence that helped turn the case from a suspected hit-and-run into a federal prosecution.

The investigation drew in the FBI, Bois Forte Police Department, Minnesota State Patrol, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nett Lake Tribal Police Department, St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, Virginia Police Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. That mix of agencies underscored both the seriousness of the crash and the complexity of policing a fatal collision on reservation land near one of the Iron Range’s busiest destination casinos.

The verdict closes one major chapter in a case that has carried weight well beyond the courtroom. For Boshey’s family and the Bois Forte community, the conviction answers the question of accountability after a life was lost. For drivers across St. Louis County, it is a reminder that drinking, distraction and failing to stop can combine into a criminal case with irreversible consequences.