Kylene Holmes, the wrong-way driver who died Tuesday in an early-morning crash on Interstate 25, was drinking with a friend in a downtown Santa Fe bar less than an hour before the high-speed head-on, The New Mexican confirmed Thursday.

A credit card receipt signed by one of the two women shows the pair were served one drink apiece at Cowgirl BBQ, 319 S. Guadalupe St., sometime before the business closed early Tuesday morning, according to the business' attorney, Dan Cron. He would not say what time the receipt was signed.

Nicholas Ballas, a Cowgirl co-owner, said via telephone on Thursday he couldn't comment on the matter and referred all questions to the attorney.

Police say Holmes was driving a late-model Nissan Altima later seen driving the wrong way on northbound I-25 at speeds exceeding 100 miles an hour before smashing into an ambulance north of the Cerrillos Road exit at 2:24 a.m.

Holmes, an El Paso resident, died at the scene. Her passenger, 38-year-old Jennifer Michelle Belvin of Oceanside, Calif., remains hospitalized at Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center. A 19-year-old emergency medical technician who was alone in the ambulance, Vanessa Carillo of La Cienega, is recovering in an Albuquerque hospital after undergoing multiple surgeries for broken bones and other injuries.

“As soon as we believed that the two women (Holmes and Belvin) had been at the Cowgirl,” Cron said, “I contacted police and we have cooperated fully with them in their investigation.”

Santa Fe Police Chief Aric Wheeler said Cowgirl representatives brought the information to their attention before investigators had any knowledge Homes and Belvin had been at the business and added the Cowgirl has been cooperative.

Wheeler said he couldn't confirm that a Cowgirl employee was the man who police dispatch records show made a 1:35 a.m. call to report that two intoxicated women were getting into a car, which matched the description of the Nissan Altima, near Guadalupe and Sandoval streets.

Wheeler said the caller reported that he had offered to call a cab for the women and warned them that he would call police if they tried to drive.

Cron wouldn't comment on that caller's identity. "What I can say is that we are confident the employees at the Cowgirl acted absolutely responsibly throughout their interaction with these customers," Cron said.

Wheeler said police were not able to locate the car after the call was received.

The driver of the ambulance involved in the early-morning crash, which is owned by Rocky Mountain EMS, was said to be upbeat and talking with friends and family Thursday at the Albuquerque hospital where she is recovering from surgeries for multiple bone fractures in both legs, a broken bone in her face and a torn muscle in her arm.

In addition to working for Rocky Mountain EMS, Carrillo is a volunteer with the La Cienega Volunteer Fire Department.

Police are waiting for autopsy and toxicology reports from the state Office of the Medical Investigator in Albuquerque before determining whether Holmes was intoxicated at the time of the crash. A blood sample was taken from Belvin after the crash, but results have not been made public.

Investigators say they believe Holmes and Belvin were headed to Albuquerque, where Holmes has family.

Four calls regarding a wrong-way motorist on northbound I-25 came into a regional dispatcher between 2:17 a.m. and 2:21 a.m. Tuesday, including one from a driver whose van was brushed by the car near the Pecos/Glorieta exit, about 20 miles away from the eventual crash site.

Investigators are trying to determine why the Altima would have been that far up northbound I-25 if the occupants were seen in a Santa Fe bar around 1:30 a.m. Police are trying to determine if Holmes was trying to go to Albuquerque after leaving the bar and headed in the wrong direction on I-25 before turning around on the northbound lanes.

An initial incident report still wasn't complete on Thursday afternoon, according to Wheeler, who also said investigators still plan to obtain search warrants for both vehicles.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com. Read his blog at SantaFeCrime.com.