New Athens bicyclist is the second in family to die in a highway crash in three years
Abby Allen lost her husband when he and another man were fatally struck on Interstate 270 in St. Louis County while checking on her husband’s FedEx tractor-trailer that had a mechanical problem.
Three years later, her son was killed in an alleged hit-and-run near Sparta while he was riding his e-bike on a 17-mile commute to his home near New Athens. He had just got off work at the Taco Bell in Sparta.
No charges were filed against the driver who hit Allen’s 49-year-old husband, Joseph “Joe” Dunn, in 2021. But the investigation is continuing into the death of her son, Christopher “Chris” Barnes, 32, whose body was found on Aug. 12.
Randolph County Sheriff Jarrod Peters said a Sparta man has been identified as the alleged driver who struck Barnes but no charges have been filed.
“I want justice for both of them but it almost seems like it’s never going to happen for my husband,” Allen said of Barnes’ stepfather. “But I’ll be damned if it’s not going to happen for my son. I can’t do this twice. I’m trying really hard to be nice about it, but inside, I’m erupting like a volcano, and I’m trying to keep a good game face on, but it’s truly very difficult, very difficult to do.”
Allen, 53, of Rocky Mount, Missouri, near Lake of the Ozarks, said it’s gotten hard for her to trust that someone will be held accountable for her loss.
“This is my second rodeo, and I didn’t have a good experience the first time,” she said. “I’ve just kind of lost some faith in the justice system, and I don’t understand why there’s no accountability anymore.”
Alleged hit-and-run
Randolph County deputies found Barnes’ body after receiving a call at about 1:30 a.m. Aug. 12 about a possible motorcycle crash.
Instead of a motorcycle, deputies discovered Barnes and a bike with an electric motor. They determined that Barnes had been riding the e-bike and was struck by a vehicle on County Road 18, two-thirds of a mile west of Gander Hollow Road near Sparta.
Deputies were able “to locate the vehicle involved in the accident as well as the alleged driver,” Peters said in a news release this week.
Peters released the man’s name but noted the case remains under investigation by the sheriff’s office, Illinois State Police and the Randolph County Coroner’s Office and that no charges have been filed.
The 41-year-old man identified by Peters could not be reached for comment. The Belleville News-Democrat is not publishing his name since he has not been charged.
Allen said her son liked being outdoors riding his e-bike and added that it had lights and reflectors.
She has trouble comprehending why the driver didn’t stay on the scene and try to help her son.
“I don’t know what the case is, but you know, we’re human, and we have accidents, and I understand that,” Allen said of the driver who struck her son, her voice cracking with emotion. “But how can you just leave someone like that? I’ll never understand.”
A mother’s memories
Allen said her son was “picking himself back up off his feet.” He loved living in a rural area near New Athens with his grandparents, who have a home on acreage.
“He was doing really good,” she said. “He had a job, saving some money.”
Allen said Barnes was fond of animals, especially cats, and “loved being out in nature.”
He would help her with projects at her home and then they would take a boat ride on the Lake of the Ozarks.
Barnes also enjoyed music and following current events in the news.
“We would talk politics and religion and all kinds of stuff,” Allen said. “He wanted a simple life, and he took a lot of pleasure in simple things that people that you know are just kind of caught up in everything overlook.”
