Coroner IDs one of two men killed in metro-east crash following armed robbery
%20(1).jpg "Two people were killed in a crash in Sauget Thursday.")
Two men who were suspects in an armed robbery in which shots were fired in Cahokia Heights are dead after the vehicle they were riding in slammed into a tractor-trailer truck and burst into flames in Sauget Thursday, authorities said.
The driver, a 34-year-old Dupo man, was pronounced dead at the scene at the intersection of at Mississippi Avenue, which is also known as Illinois 3, and Monsanto Avenue. A second man, a passenger in the blue GMC truck, was taken to a Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where he died.
Dean A. Walthes was identified as the driver, according to St. Clair County Coroner Calvin Dye Sr.
The name of the other man has not been released.
Cahokia Heights police responded to a 911 call reporting shots fired and an armed robbery of a person in progress at approximately 12:15 p.m. in the area of Cahokia Street.
The responding officers received a description of the vehicle, which was a GMC truck, Cahokia Heights Police Chief Thomas Trice said.
“As officers were en route, the suspect vehicle passed by one of the responding vehicles,” Trice said.
“The officers circled back, attempted to locate the vehicle,” he said. “They found the vehicle at Jerome Lane approaching Route 3. As they turned around and turned their lights on to go after the vehicle, the vehicle went northbound on Route 3, attempting to elude officers. Officers turned on to Route 3, attempting to catch up with the vehicle.”
Before the officers could catch up to the vehicle, it crashed into the back end quarter panel of a flatbed 18 wheeler. The vehicle immediately caught on fire. The officers put the fire out with their emergency equipment.
Illinois State Police was contacted for reconstruction and and further investigation into the traffic crash and the deaths, Trice said.
Sauget Police Chief James Jones said a tractor-trailer was coming off Monsanto Avenue making a left turn onto Mississippi when a blue truck disobeyed the stop light and crashed into the side of the trailer.
This story was originally published May 29, 2025 at 7:37 PM.
