Editor’s updates: The driver of the Ford pick-up was identified as Keyan Crow. Memorial services for the three boys who died were held Wednesday, April 3, 2024. Garland Funeral Home, 115 S. Main Street, Tampico, IL, lists the three obituary notices: https://www.legacy.com/funeral-homes/illinois/tampico/garland-funeral-home/fh-24729.
On Friday, March 29, 2024, Whiteside County Coroner Joe McDonald released the names of the teens killed in a vehicle accident on Thursday, March 28.
“Dead are 16-year old Douglas ‘DJ’ Dorathy, 14-year old Channing Swertfeger, and 14-year-old Jayden Hanson….The three were Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico High School and Middle School students.”
The original Sheriff’s Office press release follows.
At approximately 12:56 p.m., on Thursday, March 28, 2024, Whiteside County Sheriff’s Office dispatch received two separate, automatic, crash notifications from cell phones, homing to the intersection of Hahnaman Road and Luther Road, in rural Tampico, IL. Initial investigation by responding Deputies and the Sheriff’s Office Crash Reconstruction Unit determined a black, Ford F150 traveled northbound on Luther Road, near the intersection of Hahnaman Road. A truck-tractor semi-trailer, which was traveling eastbound on Hahnaman Road, impacted the Ford, which had failed to stop at the stop sign on Luther Road.
The driver of the Ford, a juvenile male, was transported to a hospital with serious, non-life-threatening injuries. Three other occupants of the Ford, also juvenile males, were pronounced deceased on scene. The driver of the truck-tractor was transported to a hospital for evaluation only, as he did not sustain any injuries.