CORRECTION

A front-page story Tuesday gave an incorrect account of how Robin Krebs of Orange County learned of an accident that claimed the life of an Alamance County teen. The story said Krebs learned of the accident when she was awakened at home by her son. Krebs says her son stayed at the scene of the accident with the injured friend, Kelsey Lunden of Mebane, and that she was awakened by cries from her son's friends as they learned of the accident. Krebs also now says that she did confront teens in her house when she found an empty beer can after an earlier sleepover and that she warned them if she found alcohol again she would contact the sheriff's office.

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A mother accused of letting teens drink in her home said she takes full responsibility for the subsequent drunken driving wreck that killed Kelsey Lunden, 17, of Mebane.

Though she didn't see the teens drinking, parent Robin Krebs, 53, said she knew there were beers around and she did nothing about it.

"I should have watched them more closely," said Krebs, who was charged last week with aiding and abetting the drinking in her Orange County home that investigators say contributed to the crash June 8 that killed Lunden.

"I can't even call her mother," she said. "I don't know what to say to her. ... She was expecting me to be responsible for her."

Lunden, a rising senior at Eastern Alamance High School, suffered fatal injuries about 4 a.m., when the car she was riding in veered off Wabash Road in southern Orange County and struck a tree. She died hours later. Two other teenagers in the car, including Krebs' son, were not seriously injured.

In recent weeks, lawmakers, judges and prosecutors across the country have called on the justice system to hold parents accountable for underage drinking. This month, two Charlottesville, Va., parents started two-year prison sentences for serving alcohol to teens at their son's birthday party. On Long Island, N.Y., a lawmaker is proposing fines of $250 to $1,000 and possible jail time for parents who allow underage drinking in their homes.

Three people have been charged in the Orange County case: Krebs, a former lab researcher; Jordan Marshall Crim, 16, whom investigators charged with driving while impaired; and Taylor Owen Doar, 22, who investigators said gave the teens more alcohol.

'I didn't do anything'

Krebs says last week she could have changed the course of events had she confronted the teens.

On June 7, Krebs went to Alamance County to pick up Lunden and her twin sister, MacKenzie. They were planning a girls night at the Krebses' house, playing video games and painting their nails, Deborah Lew, Lunden's mother, said Monday.

Lew said she rattled off her usual five questions.

"Where are you going, who are you going with, when are you gonna be home, how can I get a hold of you?

"And: You know that you can always call me?"

They left the girls' house and stopped at a gas station on Mebane Oaks Road, Krebs said.

Krebs said she watched Lunden buy two Miller Lites there. Lew said investigators are still looking into who bought beer that night. Krebs said the teen was not asked for identification.

"It was something I was responsible for, and I didn't do anything," Krebs said.

Her account is being investigated by N.C. Alcohol Law Enforcement.

After the pit stop, Krebs drove the twins, friends of her daughter, to her home on Carl Durham Road. There they joined other teens in the living room. The group included the Lunden twins; Krebs' two children, Carl, 16, and Monica, 17; and Crim, a friend of Carl Krebs.

The group sometimes crashed in the living room on weekends. Earlier this spring, Krebs said, she found an empty beer can after one of the all-night sessions, but she said nothing.

That night, Krebs said, she went to bed about 11:30 p.m.

After she fell asleep, the teens took her 2006 Toyota Corolla without permission for at least two and maybe three middle-of-the-night rides, she said.

First, the teens picked up Monica's boyfriend. The second time the teens went to get more beer from someone who had promised to provide it, Krebs said. The third trip, just after 3 a.m., was for soda at a nearby 24-hour gas station. Crim, Carl Krebs and Lunden got into the car.

At first, Lunden was behind the wheel, according to Krebs and Investigator Chris Upchurch of the Orange County Sheriff's Office. On the way back, Crim took the wheel, maneuvering down Wabash Road, a gravel drive Krebs describes as narrow and curvy.

Krebs said her son woke her, out of breath, just before 4 a.m. He told her he had climbed from the backseat of the mangled car and that Lunden was badly hurt.

At first, Lunden was able to speak to her twin, Lew said. She had severe injuries to her chest and liver, but Lew said she's not sure which caused her daughter's death. "She said she couldn't breathe," Lew said.

Lunden was buried last Tuesday. Krebs said she let her children attend the funeral but knew she wasn't welcome.

Parental responsibility

Each year since 2000, North Carolina prosecutors have charged more than 2,000 adults with purchasing or selling alcohol for minors or letting them drink. Every year, 800 to 1,000 people are convicted of such crimes, according to the Administrative Office of the Courts.

It often takes a drunken-driving fatality for a prosecutor to hold parents accountable, said Ron Bogle, deputy director of The Coalition for Alcohol & Drug Free Teenagers of Chapel Hill and Carrboro.

"If the parents don't take it seriously, the courts need to take it seriously," Bogle said.

Lunden's mother can't say what lessons she hopes come from her daughter's death.

"I'm still working that one out," Lew said. After a long pause, she said, "I think we as parents hold a huge responsibility in knowing where our kids are at, both physically and emotionally."

(News researchers David Raynor, Brooke Cain and Becky Ogburn and staff writers Lisa Hoppenjans and Sapna Maheshwari contributed to this report.)

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