Missing St. Clair County man found dead in minivan a month after crashing into ravine
Illinois Department of Transportation workers helped to solve a missing-person’s case on Thursday morning while fixing damaged guardrails along St. Clair Avenue in East St. Louis.
They looked down into a deep ravine, saw a crashed minivan and called Illinois State Police, according to Master Sgt. Adam Quirin of the St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department. ISP and sheriff’s deputies determined that the deceased driver was a metro-east man who had been reported missing a month ago.
“At this point in time, it looks like it was probably just a tragic accident,” Quirin said. “It looks like he ran off the road, hit a guardrail and flipped upside-down in that deep culvert. You can’t see it from the road.”
Fairview Heights Police Department had received a report on Nov. 15 that the man was missing, according to Chief Steve Johnson. Harry T. Hogue, 72, of unincorporated Belleville, had been last seen on Nov. 12.
Hogue’s son, who lives in Fairview Heights, filled the report, Johnson said.
The police department posted a notice on its Facebook page on Nov. 27, asking for the public’s help in finding Hogue, described as a white male who stood 5-foot-11 and weighed 195 pounds with gray hair and blue eyes. He drove a silver 2006 Mazda MPV minivan.
“Hogue is known to frequent the Tow Bar in St. Jacob and Olde Bridge Inn in Caseyville, in addition to convenience stories in St. Louis,” according to a BOLO (be on the lookout) poster.
Fairview Heights turned the case over to St. Clair County after learning that Hogue lived in unincorporated Belleville, but Johnson reported to the crash scene on Thursday morning.
The minivan had landed in a creek bed in an area where St. Clair Avenue turns into a bridge, just east of Interstate 255, he said.
This story was originally published December 14, 2023 at 3:06 PM.
