Aurora police say suspect found in crash that killed Des Plaines woman
Aurora police said they have ended the four-year search for a 48-year-old man wanted in connection with a 2013 crash that killed a staff member of a residential facility for people with psychiatric challenges.
Police said Gustavo Villarreal, whose last known address was in the 1600 block of Dearborn Avenue in unincorporated Aurora, was apprehended in Texas after being discovered by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents.
He had been sought for the Jan. 21, 2013, crash that killed Theresa M. Burns, 57, of the 700 block of South River Road in Des Plaines, and injured a 25-year-old Plainfield man.
The crash occurred around 5:30 p.m. on Church Road just north of Corporate Boulevard on the city's northeast side.
Police said Villarreal was behind the wheel of a southbound 1997 Chevrolet GEO Metro that hit the pair as they were trying to remove an 18-year-old woman from the southbound traffic lanes on Church.
The 18-year-old was a student at the nearby Northern Illinois Academy who had run from the school and sat down in the street.
After hitting the man and woman, Villarreal stopped the car and fled the scene on foot, leaving the vehicle behind, police said.
Both Burns and the man were staff members at the academy. Burns was killed instantly, and the man was treated and released at an Aurora hospital. The 18-year-old was not injured.
Villareal eluded police and ostensibly fled to Mexico, police said. Customs and Border Protection agents took him into custody after they found him hiding in the air dam of a semitruck at the Falfurrias, Texas, checkpoint about 70 miles north of the Rio Grande, police said.
He is in the custody of the Brooks County, Texas, sheriff awaiting extradition to Illinois.
Villarreal is charged with leaving the scene of an accident involving death, leaving the scene of an accident involving injury and two counts of leaving the scene of an accident involving death or injury, all felonies. His arrest warrant indicates a bond of $1 million.