How police discovered body of man crushed in garbage truck in Rosemont

Evidence collection technicians searched through garbage taken from six semitrailer trucks to find the body of a man accidentally crushed in a garbage truck in Rosemont, police said Wednesday.

Diego Mata, 31, died early Saturday morning after the trash bin that he was sleeping in behind Hofbräuhaus Chicago was picked up by garbage truck.

Natalia Derevyanny, a spokeswoman for the Cook County medical examiner's office, said Wednesday that an autopsy revealed Mata died from multiple compression injuries he sustained in the garbage truck and later at a Waste Management sanitation facility in Wheeling. Derevyanny said no more information would be available until the autopsy is closed out.

Rosemont police Sgt. Joe Balogh said Wednesday that a rotating crew of technicians wearing protective gear went through garbage from five trucks before finding Mata's body Monday in the sixth. The search began late Sunday, picked up Monday morning and lasted until Monday afternoon.

Balogh said Rosemont police officers stayed by the semitrailer trucks that they believed contained Mata's body overnight to make sure there was no tampering.

Surveillance camera footage shows Mata, who Balogh said appeared to be intoxicated, getting in the trash bin around 4 a.m. Saturday. Balogh said Mata was attending a family party at one of restaurants in the Parkway Bank Park Entertainment District.

The last time any of his family saw him was around 2 a.m. Saturday.

Mata's family filed a missing-persons report on Sunday morning. Police reviewed surveillance footage, which showed Mata and, about 80 minutes later, a garbage truck emptying the trash bin into the truck, which then crushed the bin's contents.

After viewing the footage more than 24 hours after it was recorded, officers immediately contacted Waste Management and worked with them to try to figure out where Mata's body was, Balogh said.

Balogh said the company determined that the garbage truck containing Mata's body had likely been emptied at a facility in Wheeling where trash is repacked onto large semitrailer trucks and hauled away.

Balogh said Waste Management ordered the trucks that had recently left the facility to return so they could be inspected.