IN IN - Fountain Co. line, WhtMale, mid-20s, Hitchhiker killed in auto accident, Nov'70

[tifflee]

This FindAGrave posting came up during a search on another topic. I did a quick search on NamUs and didn't find a posting.

Description per the post:

• Male, no race listed
• Estimated to be in mid-20s
• Killed on November 3, 1970
• Might have connections to Danville, Illinois and Iowa

https://findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9421851

Thanks to Steve Kruger for the following information:

"Graveside rites for the unidentified hitchhiker who was burned to death in an automobile crash at the Wabash River Bridge on Interstate 74 at the Fountain County line on Nov. 3, were held at 11 a.m., Saturday at Lower Mound Cemetery, south of U.S. 136 on old Indiana 63.

According to state and county authorities, all efforts to identify the hitchhiker has failed.

The young man, believed to be in his mid 20's, had been picked up at the U.S. 41 and I-74 Interchange at Veedersburg.

He told the driver of the car that he had spent the night in Rockville and mentioned that he planned to stop in Danville, Ill., to see if people he had known still lived there.

There was indication that he might have been going to Iowa.

All identification was destroyed by fire.

The Bodine & Shelby Funeral Home in Covington was in charge. The Rev. Henry Karg, Pastor of Benson Chapel Church, officiated."

[TD="colspan: 2"][/TD]

[TD="colspan: 2"]Burial:
Mound Cemetery
Perrysville
Vermillion County
Indiana, USA

[/TD]

 

[Dr.Strangelove]

I stay in danville all the time

 

[meanmaryjean]

Rockville is home to the world's largest concentration of covered bridges. Their annual Covered Bridge Festival was in it's early heyday in 1970- but November 3 would have been a couple of weeks after it ended. It attracts itinerant workers of all types to man the food stands, craft booths and the like. I wonder if he had been in Rockville (Parke County) for the festival and was just now making his way back west?

I drive over this bridge a couple times a year and had no idea of this tragedy.

 

[carbuff]

I went looking for newspaper articles or whatever about this accident. I didn't find anything, but I did learn that most of the bridges in Indiana are said to be haunted by people throwing themselves off, hanging themselves from the rafters of the covered bridges, crashing their vehicles into the water, or otherwise suffering unnatural deaths.

 

[MadMcGoo]

These stories are always so heartbreaking to me.

 

[MadMcGoo]

And no, unfortunately he’s not even listed in NamUs.