Man, 79, dies in crash in unincorporated Gurnee

GURNEE – A 79-year-old Wisconsin man was found dead in his pickup truck April 4 after it crashed into the Des Plaines River near Gurnee, police said.

About 7:30 p.m., Lake County Sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to a residence in the 36500 block of North Route 41 near Gurnee for a report of a pickup truck that was found submerged in the Des Plaines River, according to a news release. Deputies found the vehicle partly submerged with the driver dead.

Police said the homeowner arrived home and found tire tracks in his yard. The tracks led to the river, where he saw a 2016 Toyota Tacoma, according to the release.

When sheriff’s telecommunicators ran the license plate of the Toyota, they determined it had fled from a local police department about 9:45 p.m. April 3 about 1.5 miles away. The vehicle also had been called in as a wrong way driver at 3:40 a.m. April 3 in the area of Route 173 and Kilbourne Road.

Sheriff’s crash investigators are working to determine the approximate time of the crash and what caused it.

The truck’s driver has been identified as 79-year-old Antoine Pierre of Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. An autopsy was conducted April 5 at the Lake County Coroner’s Office. Preliminary autopsy results indicate Pierre died from blunt force injuries suffered as a result of the incident.

The crash remains under investigation by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Team.