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High School Girl Dies From Apparent Alcohol Poisoning, Liquor Store Likely Liable

November 15, 2005

In a community shaken by the deaths of two middle-school students last year, a third death - that of a popular high school athlete over the weekend - seemed like too much to bear. Then came the news that drinking may have been a factor in the death of Adele Dombrowski, 17, a senior at Steamboat Springs High School found dead in her bed Saturday morning.

Just days before Dombrowski's death, nine liquor stores in town were cited in a sting operation involving an underage buyer. 'We are looking at making sure our underage ones don't have the ability to obtain alcohol so readily,' said City Clerk Julie Jordan, who wept as she spoke on Tuesday.

Kevin Neuwirth, 20, of Steamboat Springs, has been charged with providing alcohol to Dombrowski. Neuwirth bought a 1.75-liter bottle - that's the large jug, with the handle - of rum Friday afternoon at The Bottleneck liquor store in downtown Steamboat Springs, according to Capt. Joel Rae, of the town's police department. Dombrowski reportedly drank rum-and-Pepsis with others who were under the legal drinking age on the way to Friday night's football game against Moffat County High School 40 miles away in Craig, Rae said. He declined to say how many people went to the game with Dombrowski, or who was driving. All have been interviewed, he said.

Dombrowski arrived home about 12:45 a.m. Saturday and went to bed shortly afterward. When a friend arrived nearly 10 hours later to pick her up for tennis practice, Dombrowski was dead. Results of an autopsy are to be released this week, although toxicology tests are expected to take longer. Several of Dombrowski's friends said she may have had a seizure disorder. A woman who identified herself as Dombrowski's stepmother would not confirm the information.

Fellow students said she did not appear drunk during the evening before she died. While Dombrowski was animated - as were most in the crowd at the game that Steamboat Springs won 24-23 in double overtime - she did not appear visibly intoxicated, said five girls who were with her at least part of the evening. That's why it was weird when teachers initiated discussions Monday on the importance of sobriety, said Rachel Ivancie, 15, a sophomore who was with Dombrowski. 'It didn't seem like alcohol was that much a problem' Friday night, she said. 'We were all having so much fun at the game.'

Neuwirth was charged Sunday with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and procuring alcohol for someone underage. He was released on $5,000 bond, Rae said. The Bottleneck was charged with permitting the sale of alcohol to an underage person, and with selling to an underage person. Both are misdemeanor offenses. The Bottleneck was not, however, one of the nine stores cited last week after the police department sent a 20-year-old into 11 Steamboat Springs liquor stores to try and buy booze. 'That was the biggest failure rate we've ever had' for one of the department's routine sting operations, Rae said.

The information outraged Jack Richardson, who got to know Dombrowski when she taught his 10-year- old daughter in Sunday School at the Anchor Way Baptist Church. 'We've got an epidemic up here of underage kids getting booze,' said Richardson, who said that in his job as a 7-Eleven clerk, he's constantly confronting kids who try to buy the 3.2 beer sold in the convenience store. Richardson said that while he was devastated to hear of Dombrowski's death, he wasn't surprised. 'You see (drinking) all the time in a small town,' he said. 'But you hope (a death) doesn't happen.'

Rae said the police department issues about 120 tickets a year for underage drinking. However, the citation issued to the Bottleneck - the store that sold the rum that Dombrowski apparently drank Friday night - was the first in its 30-year history. Two signs on the Bottleneck's polished wooden counter demand identification of anyone under age 30. 'We are extremely hard on checking IDs,' said owner John Marshall.

Most of the hard proof of the consequence of underage drinking came last year in three highly publicized cases on the Front Range. At both Colorado State University and the University of Colorado, students drank themselves to death last fall; a third student, at Colorado College, died in a fall from a fourth-floor window after drinking and smoking marijuana. In Steamboat Springs, a student of legal drinking age drank himself to death last year at Colorado Mountain College, Rae said.

Nonetheless, drinking deaths remain rare among youths here, he said. The two middle school students who died last year were killed in accidents. The deaths have taken their toll on the community's schools, said high school principal Mike Knezevich. 'It's been tough,' he said. Everyone at Steamboat High knew Dombrowski, who played tennis, volleyball and ice hockey, and sang in the choir. In addition to teaching Sunday school, she was also involved in the Young Life Christian youth ministry. 'She was a great kid, someone who was involved with a lot of kids in different circles,' he said. 'She never had a bad thing to say about anybody.'