LA CROSSE, Wis. — A Minnesota bartender who drowned on New Year’s Eve after her car plunged down a 40-foot embankment and crashed through ice in Wisconsin was legally drunk at the time, according to newly released police reports.

Ellen “Ellie” Ahmann of Winona had a blood-alcohol level of 0.16 percent, or twice the legal limit, when her body was recovered from the Mississippi River. The accident happened shortly after the 21-year-old left the downtown tavern where she worked.

Ahmann was a senior studying finance at Winona State University. Her death was ruled a cold-water drowning with alcohol a contributing factor, according to La Crosse police reports acquired through an open-records request.

Ahmann was scheduled to begin work at the Cheap Shots bar at 10 p.m. She arrived about an hour early and asked if she could have a drink before her shift, bar manager Katie Gannon said.

Surveillance video from the bar shows Ahmann drinking three shots in about 30 minutes and ordering a mixed drink.

She started working about 9:40 p.m. but Gannon told her to stop working just before 10 p.m. Gannon said she helped Ahmann collect her things and had her sit on a couch while Gannon called a taxi, but Ahmann left the bar before Gannon returned.

About 15 minutes later, Ahmann’s vehicle ran over a curb and plunged over the embankment onto Isle La Plume Slough. Her body was found the next day after someone noticed tire tracks in the snow and on the ice.