Police investigating threats to victim of Prospect Hts. teacher molestation

Prospect Heights police said Tuesday a youth who said he had been sexually molested by a teacher has received threatening text messages from people who believed the accusations were false.

But Ronald Vos, 53, of Buffalo Grove, a teacher at Prospect Heights Elementary District 23's MacArthur Middle School, confessed before he was charged with criminal sexual assault late last week, Prospect Heights Police Detective Sgt. Al Steffen said.

And, Vos admitted it again in a note to his wife, who found his body in the garage of their family home Monday, Steffen said.

The Cook County medical examiner's office Tuesday confirmed the death was a suicide.

Police said they are investigating the threats by text message and other forms of communication with help from the school district. "This is a tragedy for everybody involved," Steffen said.

Authorities said after allegations first surfaced in September, they traced e-mail communications between Vos and the student and developed evidence Vos had improper contact with the student four times during the time the boy was 13 to 15 years old.

Vos was suspended with pay from District 23, but had maintained he was innocent. "When he was confronted with the computer records, he emotionally collapsed," Steffen said.