Details emerge in one-car crash death of Wonder Lake man

Investigators have released new details about the circumstances leading up to the death of a Wonder Lake man in a one-car crash near Bull Valley over the weekend.

The Bull Valley Police Department said Tuesday that Aaron D. Sutherland, 22, was driving at a high rate of speed, was not wearing a seat belt and had illegal drugs in his vehicle when his car went off the road on the 300 block of Ridge Road in a heavily wooded area of McHenry County.

Police said they had not confirmed if Sutherland had taken any of the drugs found in his car or if alcohol was a factor in the crash.

Investigators said Sutherland was involved in a domestic dispute with his girlfriend before the crash in a release Tuesday afternoon.

Bull Valley police impounded a second vehicle they say was damaged during the dispute at a location away from the crash site.

An autopsy performed by the McHenry County Coroner Anne L. Majewski determined that Sutherland died from the crash at around 8 p.m. Saturday.

His body was not discovered for 16 hours, when passers-by noticed debris near the crash site shortly after noon Sunday.

Bull Valley supervisor of police Danielle Stevens said Sunday that the trees at the scene were so thick that a crew from Bull Valley Public Works had to chop down several trees to expose the car. A tow truck with a long boom was called in to pull the car, a 1997 Honda sedan, out of the vegetation before Sutherland's body could be removed.

Sutherland was pronounced dead at the scene at 12:39 p.m.

The investigation is being handled by the Bull Valley Police and the Bull Valley Police Collision Reconstruction Unit.