Police identify Aurora driver found in pond

Police have identified the 56-year-old Aurora man killed in a single-vehicle crash Tuesday when the car he was driving ended up in a pond.

Investigators, however, are still trying to learn what caused Kent L. Farris to crash into the pond at Tara Belle Parkway and Normantown Road sometime before 4:35 p.m. Tuesday.

DuPage County Coroner Richard Jorgensen said Wednesday afternoon that preliminary autopsy results indicated Farris died of drowning.

Farris also is believed to be the offending driver in a hit-and-run, chain-reaction crash that occurred at 4:17 p.m. at the intersection of Montgomery Road and Tara Belle Parkway. Two of the three drivers that were hit described the vehicle that caused the crash as similar to the 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis driven by Farris and the physical description of the driver to closely resemble Farris.

In the chain-reaction crash, a 38-year-old Aurora man said he was driving west on Montgomery Road at Tara Belle Parkway and was stopping with traffic when he was rear-ended. The force of the crash pushed his 2007 Honda CRV into the back of a 2002 Honda Accord driven by a 60-year-old Aurora woman. Her vehicle was then pushed into the rear of a 2009 Mitsubishi Gallant driven by a 38-year-old Aurora woman. The driver of the offending vehicle, believed to be Farris, then sped south on Normantown.

Several minutes later, police received a 911 call after Farris' vehicle was seen going into the retention pond. Rescue crews from both the Aurora police and fire departments, including a dive team from the fire department, responded and searched the water, which according to reports, was roughly 30 feet deep.

After about two hours, the vehicle was located submerged about 100 feet from shore. His body was pulled through the driver's side window and taken ashore. No other victims were located.

Farris was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:17 p.m.

All of the drivers involved in the original hit-and-run were alone in their vehicles. The only injury was to the 38-year-old man, who was treated for shoulder and neck pain and released.