Route 66 News usually doesn’t post news about murders, shootings and other run-of-the-mill police matters along the Mother Road.
But this incident on Route 66 in Pontiac, Ill., is too bizarre to ignore. From the Bloomington Pantagraph:
PONTIAC — No foul play is suspected in the death of a 54-year-old man whose decapitated body was found in a tow truck early Thursday.
His name won’t be released until relatives are notified, said Livingston County Coroner Michael Burke.
The truck was found near the intersection of Routes 116 and 66 after bystanders called police about 4:30 a.m. to report the truck moving erratically. A chain was dragging from the rear.
Police found the man’s body in the truck, which had ended up in a ditch. His head was in a nearby parking lot.
Police Commander Jim Woolford said a 911 caller reported the truck had left the parking lot of S&R Route 66 Auto Center, 1026 W. Reynolds St., traveled east in the parking lot of Super Gyros, 1024 W. Reynolds St., and then hit a sign before crossing Route 66 and going down the embankment of Mike’s Glass Plus.
WJBC radio is treating the death as a suicide, as this excerpt makes apparent:
A similar suicide was reported in the Livingston County community of Manville two years ago. In that case, A Chicago man strapped a cable around his neck and drove while the other end was attatched to a guardrail.
I’m not completely counting out a freak accident, but WJBC’s hunch is probably on the mark.
I feel sorry for the cop or coroner who had to deal with this grisly scene.
UPDATE: The Peoria Journal-Star also is reporting it as a suicide.
An employee of S&R Route 66 Auto Center tied one end of a cable to a sign in front of the business and the other around his neck, then got in his tow truck and popped the clutch around 4:30 a.m. today, S&R owner Jeff Semmens said. […]
“He was a pretty good guy,” Semmens said of the man who had worked for him for about four years. “It really freaks me out – I can’t think of why he’d want to do this.”
UPDATE 12/4/07: WJBC radio reports that the county coroner confirmed the death was a suicide. The victim also was legally intoxicated at the time.
Thanks for the heads up reporting