Rochelle man's father seeks answers in son's mysterious death
ROCHELLE, Ill. (WTVO) — The father of a Rochelle man, who traveled to Georgia for work and was in Alabama, is still hoping to find answers in his son's death.
John Combs was a 24-year-old lineman who traveled to Savannah, Georgia last October to work in an area struck by Hurricane Helene.
Combs had planned to return home to Rochelle on October 4th.
However, he was found dead on train tracks in Montgomery, Alabama, later that day. Police said he had been hit by a train.
His death was ruled a suicide by local police.
His father, Chris Combs, says he has struggled to get any more information to make sense of his son's passing.
'I've got an official letter from OSHA. I will say that I got a letter from [U.S. Representative] Darin LaHood's office. I got the death certificate. And that's pretty much it,' Chris said.
According to Chris, John was hospitalized on October 2nd and had been acting erratically in the time leading up to his death.
According to WICS, a witness who was on the same flight as Combs recalled that he stood up and said, 'My name is John Combs from Rochelle, Illinois. My whole life has been a lie. I'm no good at anything I do. I don't want to be a lineman anymore.'
Chris said he doesn't know why John would travel 161 miles to Montgomery.
'I got Southwest Airlines telling me that without a subpoena, we're not going to tell you anything that happened to him in Atlanta. I've got the Atlanta Police Department telling me that we're not going to give you anything. I got Montgomery Police Department telling me we're not going to give you anything,' he said.
Montgomery Police, who handled the investigation, did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
'I guess [I want to know], how can you come to that [determination of suicide]? Show me your evidence that concludes to that. Like I said, [police] told me it looks like we're probably going to rule as, not we are,' he recalled.
'I'm hoping to conclude this, get the answers to what really happened through everything, and make sure that this never happens again,' Chris said.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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