Found Deceased IL - Thomas “Tommy” Howe 24, left on foot after crash on I-94, Libertyville, 22 Jan 2022 *Reward*

[MissUnderstood]

Did he speak to the other driver involved in the crash, or just walk off? Could he have a head injury and concussion? Definitely strange circumstances.

 

[Hazelnutty]

I almost posted, "again?". Seems like this happens more frequently. Hope he's alright.

 

[Steve McQueen]

I wonder if he is afraid of being arrested or fined so he is trying to lay low? I have a friend, who made some bad choices when we were in college---he drove drunk, ran into some parked cars, disabled his car. So he ran from the scene and didn't come back to his apartment for a few weeks. Eventually they found him though. So that ploy didnt work.

This sounds about right, but why ditch the work phone?

 

[PommyMommy]

Getting my bearings...

I-94 mile marker 16.75 - Google Maps, Coordinates: 42.2709697,-87.9109842

The Old School Forest Preserve is just to the west: 42°16'15.0"N 87°54'39.1"W - Google Maps

If he made it through the Preserve and kept going west, he would have to cross the Des Plaines River. 42°16'15.0"N 87°54'39.1"W - Google Maps

It's a 7 hour walk to Antioch so I can't imagine he was going to walk home.

What did he have with him? Cash, debit/credit cards? Where does he work and why did he take his work phone instead of his personal phone?

MOO

 

[katydid23]

Getting my bearings...

I-94 mile marker 16.75 - Google Maps, Coordinates: 42.2709697,-87.9109842

The Old School Forest Preserve is just to the west: 42°16'15.0"N 87°54'39.1"W - Google Maps

If he made it through the Preserve and kept going west, he would have to cross the Des Plaines River. 42°16'15.0"N 87°54'39.1"W - Google Maps

It's a 7 hour walk to Antioch so I can't imagine he was going to walk home.

What did he have with him? Cash, debit/credit cards? Where does he work and why did he take his work phone instead of his personal phone?

MOO

I wonder if work phones are easily tracked. I think they would be. Wouldn't the company want to know where the phones were?

He might have ditched the phone in the field when he figured that out? But first he called a trusted friend to set up a ride?

 

[mlhenn]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

Circumstances of Disappearance
On January 22, 2022 around 11am Thomas Howe was involved in an motor vehicle accident on Interstate 94 near mile marker 16.75. He was last seen walking in the ditch to the west. His cellphone was located in the wooded area of a Forest Preserve near the accident site. There has been no confirmed sightings of him since.

 

[Steve McQueen]

I wonder if work phones are easily tracked. I think they would be. Wouldn't the company want to know where the phones were?

He might have ditched the phone in the field when he figured that out? But first he called a trusted friend to set up a ride?

Why not just turn the phone off. Can phones be tracked when they're shut down?

 

[UnapologeticallyAspie]

Why not just turn the phone off. Can phones be tracked when they're shut down?

Not an iPhone.

JMVHO. YMMV.

 

[PommyMommy]

Sounds like he called his parents?

JAN 26, 2022
Mystery surrounds whereabouts of Antioch man missing since car crash
[...]

Tommy Howe, 24, from Antioch, was last seen around 11 a.m. on Jan. 22, near Interstate-94 and Route 176. Antioch Police Chief Geoff Guttschow says Howe was involved in a traffic collision and his family began looking into his disappearance shortly thereafter.

Guttschow says family members filed a missing person report late Saturday evening.

“We immediately initiated our investigation,” Guttschow said. “We started trying to locate Tommy with no success overnight. We learned on Sunday afternoon he had an employer-issued cell phone, having left his personal phone in the car at the time of the accident. We were able to start tracking his employer-issued cell phone.”

Authorities said the phone tracked to the Old School Forest Preserve, yielding a massive search for Howe’s whereabouts.

... “We located his employer-issued cell phone in the snow within the Forest Preserve [Monday] itself and since that time, we have been following up leads and kind of expanding our search, looking all over for this kid.”

[...]

“His folks began to track his iPhone with the iPhone app on his personal phone. They tracked it to the tow lot where the Illinois State Police had taken his car after the collision,” Guttschow said. “We learned through an interview with the State Police that it was reported that Tommy ran from the traffic crash following the collision. We don’t know why. We don’t know what his intended destination was, which is what led us launching this widespread search for him.”

 

[swanniee11]

I wonder if he made that apt to begin with? Curious as to the time of the apt and the crash. IMO

 

[JurassicParker]

Does it say how bad the accident was? Is he running to avoid possible possession charges? DWI? No insurance or DL? Or was he injured and could possibly be suffering from a concussion?

 

[samsmom]

There’s also the metra that goes through Libertyville. I’m still trying to figure out how he got from the toll road to the preserve off St Mary’s road.

 

[Skylark6]

Some perspective from images:
View one, approaching mile marker 16.75. you can see you could easily hop the guard rail into the preserve. I believe the train line WAS the EJ&E, a relatively short line running from Waukegan IL to Gary IN, now owned by Wisconsin Central. I don't think it gets much use, especially after the merger.

View 2, at the mile marker.

View 3, looking back from the mile marker looking back towards the sledding hill area at the Preserve.

And 4, satellite view with estimate of approximate site of accident at red pin near the mile marker.

 

[mlhenn]

Mystery surrounds whereabouts of Antioch man missing since car crash | WGN-TV

Jan. 22 (Saturday)
•last seen near Interstate-94 and Route 176 around 11am
•involved in an auto collision
•State Police have vehicle towed
•(evening of) family filed a MP report
•LE began investigating TH’s disappearance

Jan 23 (Sunday)
•(afternoon of) LE learned TH had an employer-issued cell phone
•LE began tracking his work phone
•LE searched the Old School Forest Preserve

Jan 24 (Monday)
•(morning of) LE expanded search to include a very large area of the Old School Forest Preserve, which is about 4,500 acres
•TH’s work phone was found at the Preserve

Unsure of which date:
•his parents tracked his personal phone to a tow yard where it was found inside his wrecked vehicle
•LE learned through an interview with the State Police that it was reported that Tommy ran from the traffic crash following the collision; reason unknown

 

[mlhenn]

Police continue to search for missing Antioch man

Jan 27
Authorities continue to search for 24-year-old Thomas Howe, who went missing on Saturday after a crash on Interstate 94 near Libertyville.

Thomas “Tommy” Howe, 24, of Antioch, was reported missing to the Antioch Police Department.

He was involved in a crash on Interstate 94 at mile marker 16.75 near Libertyville, police said.

A relative of Howe said that he was possibly spotted midday on Sunday in a neighborhood north of Hawthorn Mall in Vernon Hills.

Police said they could not confirm the sighting.

….

led a collaborative search of the Old School Forest Preserve Thursday morning.

Thursday’s search was focused on areas identified as having a “higher likelihood of providing information about Howe’s activities within the forest preserve following the crash,” Moran said.

 

[Poppyflower]

He is probably dead in the snow near or in the preserve. It is very cold in that area right now. Temps below 0.

reminds me of this case- Body Found in Frozen Palos Park Pond is Missing Chicago Man

 

[Kristin Esq.]

Antioch man Thomas Howe missing for days after car crash

[...]

...the Illinois State Police, Lake County Sheriff's Office, and the Lake County Forest Preserve Police have all joined in the search.

MOO: he's running from something.

 

[Allynator]

This is so strange... hope he pops up soon.

 

[Friday Fan]

He is probably dead in the snow near or in the preserve. It is very cold in that area right now. Temps below 0.

reminds me of this case- Body Found in Frozen Palos Park Pond is Missing Chicago Man

Oh Gosh! Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the weather.....(duh..how could I forget?? duh)

Chicago, IL Weather Calendar | Weather Underground

These temperatures are in Fahrenheit.

Zero Fahrenheit = -17 Celsius.

Over the past week:

Temperature (° F) Max Average Min
Max Temperature 32 21.83 12
Avg Temperature 26.33 15.03* 4.21
Min Temperature 16 7.33 -5

Average temperature over the last week is*15.03 F = -9.43 C.
The average low was 7.33 F = -13.70 C

The temps have not risen above freezing (Zero Celsius) since he went missing.
The only way he would have survived, is if he had found shelter fairly early on.

I'm sure these cold temps make searching even more difficult.
I can imagine dogs losing scent fairly easily in temps like this.

Kudos to the search parties who are out in this cold!

 

[Hope32]

Not an iPhone.

JMVHO. YMMV.

Actually they can be if you haven't disabled the feature on the 12 and up. I was able to power off my 12 when I had to send it back and was able to track it's path to the address it was sent to over several days.