Woman accused in fatal Eden Prairie head-on crash had revoked license, charges say

A woman who had a revoked license was charged Monday in connection to a fatal head-on crash on an Eden Prairie, Minnesota, highway over the weekend.

According to the criminal complaint, Eden Prairie police responded to a report of a pickup truck driving the wrong direction on Westbound Highway 212 near Prairie Center Drive on Saturday evening. The pickup truck crashed into a small sedan a short time later.

The driver of the sedan, 69-year-old Bohdan Antoniuk of Hopkins, Minnesota, died at the scene. Police knocked on Roksolana Antonyuk's door at 10 p.m. Saturday to give her the news that her father had died. 

He had been on his way home from his job helping a boy with disabilities. The next day, Antonyuk had to tell her two boys.

"They asked if Dido died. I said yes, he died. Then my oldest son, he's 8, said don't worry mom, his soul will get reborn again," Antonyuk said.

The 50-year-old woman who was driving the truck, Amanda Merriman, admitted to consuming two vodka cranberry drinks before driving, the complaint says. The test results of her blood sample are pending.

In a post-Miranda interview, Merriman said she was driving home to Victoria from River Falls, Wisconsin. She said the visibility and road conditions were fine, and said she didn't know she was traveling the wrong way. She added that the thought she was going to be in an accident 30 to 45 seconds before the collision, the complaint says.

Law enforcement also found a glass pipe and a bag of marijuana in her car, charges say.

Merriman has prior convictions for driving while intoxicated, and she had her driver's license revoked after she was convicted of driving under the influence in 2024. She was also on probation for possessing methamphetamine at the time of the crash, charges say.

Bohdan had a flight scheduled for the end of July to return back to Ukraine after his two-year refugee visa was to expire. His daughter wants people to know what a kind, honest and hardworking man he was.

"This was supposed to be a story with a happy ending. All he tried was just to help and have family time together," Antonyuk said.

She said the last gift her father gave her was a handmade Ukrainian necklace. She is now navigating the mountain of paperwork to get her father's remains back to Ukraine.