24-year-old vanishes into woods after crash, sparking desperate search in Illinois

A totaled car, cellphone, and a handful of witnesses are what Tommy Howe left behind as he vanished.

Family, friends and Illinois police have been searching for the missing 24-year-old Antioch man since Jan. 22, when he crashed into another car along Interstate 94, near Libertyville, a suburb north of Chicago.

The car crash was serious enough to deploy all airbags and “total” the vehicle, his mother, MaryMargaret Howe, wrote in a Facebook post.

But her son was still able to get out of the car and wander away from the scene.

He may have suffered a concussion during the accident and become delirious to the point that “he may not know who he is.”

“While in this massive search effort please be aware that he is harmless. He is a rule follower, hard working, loving kid that would do absolutely anything for anyone,” she wrote. “I know we will get him home, we just need to help him!”

In another bizarre move, Howe made his way to a nearby nature preserve, News Nation reported.

“We are baffled at this point and we truly believe he was completely disoriented,” his father, Tom Howe, told the outlet.

Temperatures have been well below freezing in the area since the Jan. 22 crash.

There’s no way to know how injured Howe was in the crash, if at all, Antioch Police Chief Geoffrey Guttschow told WDJT.

“We have no idea. There was no blood in the car, no signs of any blood anywhere at the crash scene or in the forest preserve, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t sustain some type of injury,” Guttschow told the TV station.

Howe was supposed to meet with his parents for lunch but he never showed up, according to News Nation. Worried, his parents tracked his cellphone down to a tow yard where his wrecked car had been brought. Then they checked area hospitals, and searched the crash site itself for any sign of their son.

“It’s a nightmare,” Howe’s father told the outlet. “Every morning we wake up and we’re getting a couple hours of sleep a night. We wake up in the morning and for about 10 seconds you think, ‘Oh I’m glad that nightmare is over,’ and then it hits us.”

Authorities from several departments, aided by 77 volunteers, and teams of trained K-9s scoured the Old School Forest Preserve. They found Howe’s work cellphone in the woods, and nothing else, the Antioch Police Department announced Jan. 24.

More searches were carried out in the area in the following days, each attempt turning up nothing.

Antioch police last provided an update on Jan. 27.

“We want Tommy’s family and friends to know that we’re committed to being there with them every step of this process,” Police Chief Geoffrey Guttschow said. “Our investigators continue to follow up on every lead that has been called into our dispatch center.”

Howe was wearing jeans and a gray North Face jacket when he was last seen, according to police. He has brown eyes and hair, and stands about 5-foot, 8-inches in height.

Anyone who thinks they may have seen Howe is encouraged to contact Antioch police at 847-270-9111.

This story was originally published February 3, 2022 at 12:33 PM with the headline "24-year-old vanishes into woods after crash, sparking desperate search in Illinois."