Visitation and services scheduled for Army vet reported missing Dec. 1
Services for a distraught Army veteran who walked away from his Libertyville home Dec. 1 and whose body was found Friday will be this weekend.
The family of Sgt. Dan Nerstrom said they have received support from family and friends and invite the public to share in his loss and give a final salute.
Visitation is 3 to 8 p.m. Friday at Burnett-Dane Funeral Home, 120 W. Park Ave. (Route 176) in Libertyville, with a funeral service scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday.
“Daniel was my only son, but he had many brothers,” said his mother, Kim Nerstrom.
The 30-year-old from Green Oaks served in the Army from September 2003 to January 2009. He was deployed in Iraq for a year as a scout.
His father, Douglas, and girlfriend, Amanda Tiffany, told the Daily Herald he suffered head trauma overseas and had post-traumatic stress disorder. He also was being treated for migraine headaches, his mother said.
In a news release at the time, Libertyville police said Nerstrom left home at 6 p.m. Dec. 1 and was possibly armed with a handgun. Foul play is not suspected in his death.
Several searches by authorities and volunteers were made in the ensuing months but turned up empty. Authorities also investigated several reports of his appearance, most recently in early February in Wichita, Kansas.
The search ended March 13 when a passenger on a train saw the body near the tracks about a quarter-mile east of the downtown Libertyville train station. The body had been in heavy brush and weeds and wasn't visible until the recent snow melt, Libertyville police Lt. Bill Kinast said. He noted searchers had come within about 25 feet of the body.
“Like everybody else, we're astonished he wasn't found,” Kinast said. “We were so close numerous times, but he just wasn't seen. We had a helicopter, tracking doges, cadaver dogs.”
Kim Nerstrom said she feared the worst from the beginning.
“You always hold out hope, but as a mother, I knew,” she said. “I went to Wichita hoping I would find my child, but the mother in me knew.”
She said military veterans are expected at the service.
“His brothers will send him off properly,” she said.