Coronavirus delays death investigation of Mascoutah priest serving prison sentence
The COVID-19 pandemic has delayed an investigation into the death of a former Mascoutah priest who was serving time in prison for possession of child pornography and methamphetamine, according to the warden and county coroner.
It’s been two months since Gerald R. Hechenberger died at age 56. He had just begun serving a nine-year sentence at Pinckneyville Correctional Center.
“The investigation is still pending,” Warden Jeff Dennison said Friday, adding that the coronavirus had caused delays.
Dennison referred other questions to Illinois Department of Corrections spokeswoman Lindsey Hess, who didn’t return multiple calls for comment.
Last week, Perry County Coroner Paul Searby said he couldn’t release information on Hechenberger’s cause of death because he hasn’t received investigative reports from the Illinois Department of Corrections.
“(The department) has an investigative unit that comes in, but it has not been allowed into the prison due to the COVID to finish their reports,” Searby said.
Hechenberger was pronounced dead on Friday, March 6, at Pinckneyville Community Hospital. An autopsy was performed on Monday, March 9, at Searby’s funeral home in DuQuoin. That included toxicology tests that were sent off to a lab.
Searby said it’s “standard procedure” for the Illinois Department of Corrections to conduct investigations on inmate deaths and that it doesn’t indicate suspicious circumstances.
The coroner’s job is to determine cause and manner of death.
“You get the autopsy done, you wait on toxicology, and you wait on all investigative reports to come in,” Searby said. “Once all that is together, then (the doctor) who did the autopsy determines the cause and manner of death. That’s what we’re held up on right now, getting those investigative reports.”
At the time of Hechenberger’s death, Searby declined to comment on whether the former priest died at the prison or hospital or whether it related to his poor physical and mental health.
Hechenberger was ordained a priest in 1996 and served parishes in Olney, Fairfield, Mount Carmel, Cahokia, Dupo, Smithton, Fayetteville and St. Libory. He was associate pastor at Holy Childhood of Jesus Catholic Church and School in Mascoutah at the time of his arrest on Jan. 8, 2018.
The investigation grew out of a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which flagged an image coming into his Google account as child pornography.
On Nov. 7, 2019, Hechenberger pleaded guilty to four of 17 counts, including three counts of possessing pornographic photos of children and one count of possessing methamphetamine.
On Jan. 14, Hechenberger was sentenced to nine years in prison by St. Clair County Circuit Judge Zina Cruse, despite defense lawyer Randall Kelley’s argument that any form of incarceration would be a “death sentence” because of his poor health.
At the sentencing hearing, Hechenberger told the court that his behavior resulted from a “perfect storm” of mental health issues, including depression and bipolar disorder; drug use, hypersexual thoughts and grief over the death of his father in 2014.
In a letter to priests and deacons after Heckenberger’s death, Catholic Diocese of Belleville Bishop Edward K. Braxton noted that he had visited the priest in St. Clair County Jail, before he was transferred to Pinckneyville in January, and that Braxton had serious concerns about his well-being due to health problems.
This story was originally published May 5, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
