FEMALE HIKERS FIND CRASHED TOYOTA PRIUS WITH DEAD MAN INSIDE
Lake County Sheriff’s deputies, Grayslake Fire Department and Countryside FPD responded about 11:00 a.m. Sunday, March 18, 2018 to a report of a crash near Winchester Road and Route 83 (20303 West Winchester Road). Young hikers found a severely wrecked gold Toyota Prius with the body of a man inside the a Toyota Prius with severe front-end damage from a crash into a tree. When Lake County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, the vehicle was recognized as the same make and model connected to missing Round Lake Park man, Dale F. Kropke, who had been missing since he left home for a doctor’s appointment in Libertyville on March 4, 2018.
Female hikers discovered the Toyota Prius, with the driver in the driver’s seat, crashed into the tree in a field just northwest of Mundelein and west-northwest of Libertyville on Sunday morning. The identity of the male driver was not released by the Lake County Coroner’s Office as of Sunday evening, but the victim’s family confirmed that Dale F. Kropke, 76, was killed in the crash.
Early investigation indicates that Dale Kropke was driving his gold 2010 Toyota Prius eastbound on Winchester Road east of Route 83. Kropke’s vehicle left the roadway, headed south through a field and hit a tree, according to the news release from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Friends, family, volunteers, and police personnel had searched a wide area around Libertyville, Mundelein and Vernon Hills looking for Kropke, and a helicopter search had been planned for Monday, March 19, 2018.
A medical event is likely to have caused the driver to lose control of the vehicle, and an autopsy scheduled Monday, March 19, 2018 may determine the cause of the crash. A Lake County Sheriff’s Office Technical Crash Investigations Unit investigation is ongoing. Superior Ambulance removed the body from the scene
Dale Kropke/Toyota Prius, Missing Banner from the past two weeks in the Round Lake Park.
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Round Lake Park is a village in Lake County, Illinois with a population that was 7,505 at the 2010 census. Round Lake is located along the south shore of Round Lake.