Latest news with #KaneCountyCoroner'sOffice
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Aurora crash: Man killed, 2 injured in three-vehicle collision, police say
The Brief A 19-year-old man died after a three-vehicle crash around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday on Butterfield Road in Aurora. The crash involved a red Saturn SUV, a semi-truck, and a third vehicle; two other drivers were hospitalized with injuries. Police are investigating the cause of the crash; the Kane County coroner has not yet released the victim's identity. AURORA, Ill. - A man died and two others were injured in a three-vehicle crash early Wednesday in west suburban Aurora, according to police. What we know The crash occurred about 6:30 a.m. on Butterfield Road near Eola Road. Aurora police said a red Saturn SUV, driven by a 19-year-old man, collided with a semi-truck just east of Hedge Row Drive. A third vehicle was also involved. All three vehicles sustained significant damage. The drivers of the semi-truck and the third vehicle were taken to area hospitals with injuries. Their conditions were not immediately known. The 19-year-old driver of the Saturn had to be extricated from the vehicle and was taken to Rush Copley Medical Center, where he died at 7:32 a.m., police said. What they're saying "Our hearts are with the family and friends of the man who lost his life in this tragic crash," said Aurora Police Chief Matt Thomas. "We continue to investigate the factors that led to this collision and urge all drivers to remain vigilant and cautious, especially in rainy or wet weather and when traveling near large trucks. Even a moment's lapse in attention or an unexpected change in road conditions can have devastating consequences." What's next The Kane County Coroner's Office has not released the man's identity. An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause and manner of death. The crash remains under investigation. Anyone with more information is urged to contact Aurora PD's Traffic Division at 630-256-5330, or email tips@
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Yahoo
Kane coroner confirms remains found in car are those of missing Elgin woman Karen Schepers
The Kane County Coroner's Office announced Thursday night that the skeletal remains found inside a car removed this week from the Fox River belong to Karen Schepers, the 23-year-old Elgin woman who went missing in April 1983. Dental records provided by the family led to the positive confirmation by a forensic odontologist, according to Coroner Dr. Monica Silva, who issued a news release on the findings shortly after 8 p.m. Elgin police have said it was likely Schepers had been found but there would be no official confirmation until after the coroner's review using either dental records or DNA. Had the latter been necessary, the process could have taken several weeks. The mystery of what happened to Karen Schepers made it one of the oldest cold cases in the Elgin Police Department's files. It prompted two detectives to produce a podcast, 'Somebody Knows Something,' and to launch a search of the river, which is not believed to have been done at the time of her disappearance. And, in fact, the case could have been solved three years ago had an Elgin Fire Department diver not mistaken her car, found in the murky, brush-filled water, for an ATV when he went in to investigate. The search was done after a resident told the fire department that he'd seen something that looked like a car northwest of the Slade Avenue Park boat launch. The error was announced Thursday morning by the Elgin police and fire departments, with Elgin Fire Chief Robb Cagann acknowledging that a better inspection of the vehicle — which had landed on its roof — should have been done. The department's protocol and policies in regards to such searches have been improved since then, he said. Schepers was last seen on April 16, 1983, when she left a Carpentersville bar where she'd been having drinks with coworkers. She was believed to be headed home to her Elgin apartment when she and her 1980 yellow Toyota Celica vanished. The podcast looked at several possible scenarios, including that she could have accidentally driven into a body of water because it was dark, the temperatures below freezings and the roadways slick. Had she followed the common route home, she would been following a path that was very close to the river, which was abnormally high at the time due to recent storms. Schepers' family was notified Tuesday of the car's recovery and the discovery of human remains found inside. Her brother, Gary, expressed relief that they might finally have the closure they've sought for more than four decades. Schepers' father, a pilot, tried to do his own search using a chartered plane but ultimately died without know what had happened to his daughter. The two cold case detective and Chaos Divers, a nonprofit organization that searches bodies of water for missing people, searched several areas long the river using specialized sonar equipment. Police have not offered any thoughts as to how the car ended up where it did and if they believe it could have been moved by the current in the last 41 years.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Yahoo
Elgin-area police news: Elgin man, 30, charged in domestic-related murder case; Elgin man gets 27-year prison term for sexually assaulting child; Elgin man gets 27-year prison term for sexually assaulting child
An Elgin man has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the March 18 fatal stabbing of an Elgin woman in a case described by police as domestic related, an Elgin Police Department post on Facebook said. Jonatann Villafuerte-Ontiveros, 30, of the 800 block of Suzanne Lane, is being held in the Cook County jail pending the next court hearing in the case involving an unnamed woman being attacked and later dying at an area hospital, the post said. The incident occurred about 11:20 p.m. in the 800 block of Suzanne Lane. An autopsy on the victim was conducted March 19 by the Kane County Coroner's Office but the findings and the woman's name have not been released. No details on what led to the incident or how the two people are related were released by police. An Elgin man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison after being found guilty in a bench trial of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 13, a news release from the Kane County State's Attorney's Office said. Jacob Gutierrez, 35, of the 200 block of Douglas Avenue, was convicted of four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, a class X felony, and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a class 4 felony, the release said. The situation was discovered after the victim notified an adult, who contacted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. State prosecutors asked that the judge impose a 65-year prison term but Judge John Barsanti opted for the minimum sentence of 27 years, the release said. Under state law, Gutierrez must serve 85% of the 24-year sentence imposed for the predatory criminal sexual assault charges and 50% of the three-year sentence for the aggravated criminal sexual abuse counts. Gutierrez will receive credit for 722 days served in the Kane County jail and must register for life as a sexual offender, the release said. 'No sentence will ever be enough for the abuse this child suffered over many years, but thanks to this child bravely coming forward and testifying in court against her abuser, this defendant is now being held accountable for his actions,' Assistant State's Attorney Stacey Wittman said in a statement. A 42-year-old Carpentersville man has been charged with multiple counts of drunken driving in connection with a four-vehicle crash on Interstate 290 Sunday that left one person dead. Saul A. Alba is accused of driving a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck west in the eastbound lanes of I-290 and striking three vehicles in the area of Wolf Road in Hillside, an Illinois State Police news release said. Andy Orozco, 61, of Chicago, was pronounced dead at a local hospital and another driver hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, the release said. Alba was hospitalized for serious injuries before being transferred to the custody of the Cook County Sheriff's Office. He has been charged with aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol involving death, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol-third offense and aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol-revoked driver's license, all felonies, as well as other traffic offenses, the release said.
Chicago Tribune
27-03-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Elgin-area police news: Elgin man, 30, charged in domestic-related murder case; Elgin man gets 27-year prison term for sexually assaulting child; Elgin man gets 27-year prison term for sexually assaulting child
Elgin man, 30, charged in domestic-related murder case An Elgin man has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the March 18 fatal stabbing of an Elgin woman in a case described by police as domestic related, an Elgin Police Department post on Facebook said. Jonatann Villafuerte-Ontiveros, 30, of the 800 block of Suzanne Lane, is being held in the Cook County jail pending the next court hearing in the case involving an unnamed woman being attacked and later dying at an area hospital, the post said. The incident occurred about 11:20 p.m. in the 800 block of Suzanne Lane. An autopsy on the victim was conducted March 19 by the Kane County Coroner's Office but the findings and the woman's name have not been released. No details on what led to the incident or how the two people are related were released by police. Elgin man gets 27-year prison term for sexually assaulting child An Elgin man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison after being found guilty in a bench trial of sexually assaulting a girl under the age of 13, a news release from the Kane County State's Attorney's Office said. Jacob Gutierrez, 35, of the 200 block of Douglas Avenue, was convicted of four counts of predatory criminal sexual assault, a class X felony, and two counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse, a class 4 felony, the release said. The situation was discovered after the victim notified an adult, who contacted the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. State prosecutors asked that the judge impose a 65-year prison term but Judge John Barsanti opted for the minimum sentence of 27 years, the release said. Under state law, Gutierrez must serve 85% of the 24-year sentence imposed for the predatory criminal sexual assault charges and 50% of the three-year sentence for the aggravated criminal sexual abuse counts. Gutierrez will receive credit for 722 days served in the Kane County jail and must register for life as a sexual offender, the release said. 'No sentence will ever be enough for the abuse this child suffered over many years, but thanks to this child bravely coming forward and testifying in court against her abuser, this defendant is now being held accountable for his actions,' Assistant State's Attorney Stacey Wittman said in a statement. Carpentersville man charged with DUI in fatal I-290 crash A 42-year-old Carpentersville man has been charged with multiple counts of drunken driving in connection with a four-vehicle crash on Interstate 290 Sunday that left one person dead. Saul A. Alba is accused of driving a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck west in the eastbound lanes of I-290 and striking three vehicles in the area of Wolf Road in Hillside, an Illinois State Police news release said. Andy Orozco, 61, of Chicago, was pronounced dead at a local hospital and another driver hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries, the release said. Alba was hospitalized for serious injuries before being transferred to the custody of the Cook County Sheriff's Office. He has been charged with aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol involving death, aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol-third offense and aggravated driving under the influence of alcohol-revoked driver's license, all felonies, as well as other traffic offenses, the release said.
Chicago Tribune
26-03-2025
- Chicago Tribune
Human remains found in car pulled from the Fox River belonging to Elgin woman missing since 1983
Human remains were found inside a car pulled Tuesday from the Fox River that belonged to Karen Schepers, an Elgin woman who has been missing for nearly 42 years. Elgin Police Chief Ana Lalley made the announcement in a Facebook post Tuesday night. 'At this time, the Kane County Coroner's Office has confirmed through a forensic pathologist the presence of skeletal human remains that were located inside the vehicle,' the post said. 'The next steps will be to compare DNA samples or dental records of Karen to the remains located in the vehicle to confirm a positive identification of the remains that were found.' The identification process could take several weeks, Lalley said. Schepers' car was discovered late Monday afternoon by Elgin police and a dive team, which had spent the day searching locations where her car might have gone into the water on April 16, 1983, when she was last seen leaving a Carpentersville bar and was believed to be driving home to her Elgin apartment. Crews were able to remove the vehicle — a canary yellow Toyota Celica hatchback with an orange stripe and a license plate number matching the one that had been on Schepers' car — Tuesday afternoon but no confirmation on what was found inside was immediately released. The search was part of an investigation undertaken by the Elgin Police Department's Cold Case Unit, which produced a podcast, 'Somebody Knows Something,' in an effort to put a new light on the missing person case, which went unsolved for four decades. Covered in mud and branches, the car was discovered in about 7 feet of water by Chaos Divers, a nonprofit that specializes in finding missing people in bodies of water. Working with Elgin police detectives Andrew Houghton and Matt Vartanian, the team spent the day Monday systematically searching the river in hopes of locating the vehicle. Chaos Divers manager Lindsay Bussick, who was joined in the search by company owner Jacob Grubbs and diver Mike McFerron, said Monday they initially focused on areas of the river that run alongside Duncan Avenue, one of two routes Schepers would have likely followed to get home. 'There are so many spots where it is so close to the river,' Bussick said. The crew uses three types of sonars, including one with a scope that provides a live feed that's almost like an ultrasound, she said. 'There are times we can get such a clear image where we can almost tell what make and model the vehicle is.' However, that wouldn't have been the case here, she said. '… with her being missing for so long, we are kind of looking at it differently,' she said. 'We are looking for shadows because we have to take into account deterioration and that kind of thing from just being in the water and the flow of the water over that vehicle.' Police have long believed that one explanation for Schepers' disappearance could be that she drove into a body of water, which would explain why her car was never found, her credit cards and bank accounts left untouched, and nothing from her apartment taken. According to the podcast, Schepers was born in San Francisco, the second of nine children. The family moved to Sycamore in 1965, and she graduated from Sycamore High School in 1977. She later moved to Elgin, where she worked as a computer programmer for First Chicago Bank Card. She had been dating a man named Terry Wayne Schultz, but they'd broken up several weeks earlier after being unofficially engaged, police said. On the night of Friday, April 15, Schepers joined about 20 coworkers at P.M. Bentley's, a now-closed Carpentersville bar, to celebrate the completion of a work project. She talked to Schultz that night, but he opted not to meet her at the bar, police said. Schepers was last by friends and witnesses participating in a hula hoop contest. She left the bar in the early morning hours of Saturday, April 16. When Schultz failed to hear from her later and she didn't show up for work on Monday, he notified police that she was missing. Schepers' 90-year-old mother, Liz Paulson, was among the family members interviewed for the podcast. The family feels like it's hard to move forward until 'you fix this,' she said. Paulson still lives in the family's Sycamore home, which looks the same as it did in 1983. It has never been painted a different color so Karen would recognize it if she ever returned, said her brother, Gary Scheppers. In the interview, he said he still held a sliver of hope that he would see her again. 'Mom and I are still in the house. We are waiting for her to show up one day,' Gary said. 'I would be surprised but I wouldn't be surprised if that happened.' In the podcast, Houghton and Vartanian outlined the reasons why it was important to look at the river and other bodies of water. Chief among them were the weather conditions when she left the bar and the river's high water level at the time, they said. There were two routes Schepers could've taken to return to her apartment in the 300 block of Lovell Street on Elgin's east side, the detectives said. Duncan Avenue would have been the more common route, they said, although she also could have taken Route 25. The two detectives researched the phases of the moon to determine how dark the road would have been and learned there was a crescent moon that night in which only 10% was illuminated. 'It would've been pretty dark,' Houghton said in the podcast. There also would have been less light pollution because Elgin's population was only about 60,000 and the town not as built up as it is now, he said. Temperatures were below freezing and there were gusting winds, data show. Additionally, the Fox River was at a record high level that week, much higher than the normal 8 feet it would have been along that stretch of road, the detectives said. Water or ice on the roadway could've caused Schepers' car to slip or crash and, if it did, her response time might have been affected by any alcoholic drinks she'd had at the bar, they said. If she was incapacitated by a crash, her car could've veered into the river. Houghton and Vartanian said they planned to explore other theories, such as whether Schepers might have decided to leave Elgin, may have intentionally hurt herself or encountered someone who did her harm, if the search proved fruitless. 'It's important we exhaust all investigative methods . . . because there are always going to be questions,' Lalley said. 'The purpose of the Cold Case Unit is to find answers and, more importantly, bring some peace and closure to the family, if we can.' Being part of a mission to locate a family's missing loved one can be 'incredibly rewarding,' Bussick said. 'It's heartbreaking at times because when we do locate someone, you are taking that hope away from them that their loved one may pull back into the driveway,' she said. 'At the same time, you can watch this weight be lifted off them.' To listen to the podcast, click here.
