Man found by family morning after fatal motorcycle accident on interstate ramp

On Saturday night, Daniel Coombs’ family and friends scoured the weeds along Interstate 255, searching for the 50-year-old Maryville man who had not returned home that day.

Coombs was riding his Kawasaki motorcycle home from a friend’s house in State Park at around 2 p.m. Saturday, but never arrived home, according to a Marvyille police press release.

Lynell Pople, Coombs’ sister-in-law, said they notified the police that Coombs was missing at around 7:30 p.m. He was reported missing by Maryville police at 8:39 p.m. and his phone was pinged at 11:30 p.m. to show his location.

Maryville police told the family Coombs’ phone was located somewhere along Interstate 255 and transferred the case to Illinois State Police because the location was in their jurisdiction.

Early Sunday morning, Pople, along with Coombs’ wife, Melissa Coombs, and family friends set out to search in the rain along I-255 northbound for Coombs, not knowing if he was alive or dead. The Coombses’ daughter had already been searching since 8 p.m.

At 8 a.m. Sunday, about 12 hours after the search began, they found his body.

“Our hope was that we would find he had wrecked his motorcycle and that he was injured and not able to crawl out and not reach his cell phone,” Pople said. “We were holding onto hope that he was alive. It was devastating, the emotions that we went through.”

Herr Funeral Home was assisting family with funeral arrangements.

This story was originally published October 18, 2017 at 3:29 PM with the headline "Man found by family morning after fatal motorcycle accident on interstate ramp."