02-05-2025
Funeral for Ainsley Johnson, killed in Chatham, Illinois daycare crash, to be held Friday
First funeral for Chatham, Illinois crash victim to be held Friday
First funeral for Chatham, Illinois crash victim to be held Friday
First funeral for Chatham, Illinois crash victim to be held Friday
The first funeral for one of the four girls killed after a car crashed into an after-school camp in downstate Chatham, Illinois will be held Friday.
Family and friends will lay eight-year-old Ainsley Johnson to rest Friday afternoon. She is one of three children and one teenage girl who were killed.
In an update Thursday, Illinois State Police said 44-year-old Marianne Akers, who was driving the car that crashed through the building housing YNOT Outdoors Summer and After School Camp on Monday afternoon, was not intoxicated at the time of the incident. They said preliminary toxicology testing found no traces of alcohol or cany controlled substances.
State police said they are considering that this could have been the result of a medical emergency.
Six others were also hurt, most of whom have since been released from the hospital, including Akers.
"Our people and all first responders are tough," said ISP Director Brendan Kelly. "But when a child dies, when children die, it weighs on their hearts and on their minds and their souls."
There are no charges pending, but an investigation remains open and active.
Ainsley was in second grade at Glenwood Elementary School. She danced at Studio M Dance Center, and played soccer in the SASA Soccer League, her obit read.
Ainsley would "often sing along to any song she heard," and would take her dad's AirPods when he was mowing the lawn so she could listen to the music he was enjoying, her obit read.
Ainsley also loved art, makeup, swimming, boating, and spending time at a lake—and she always looked forward to family vacations, her obituary said.
Classes in the district also returned to in-person learning Friday. The school district said there will be extra counselors and therapy dogs will be available for students and staff.
