Friends of Buffalo Grove accident victim gather to remember

Friends of Mike Lechner gathered at a roadside memorial at the entrance to the Oak Creek Condominiums in Buffalo Grove late Monday night.

The impromptu ceremony, which took place at the scene of the accident that killed Lechner, started around 9:30 p.m. and lasted two hours.

The 23-year-old Lechner, who lived about a mile away from the accident scene, died early Sunday morning after his Suzuki GSXR TL1000 motorcycle collided with a car on Buffalo Grove Road near Old Oak Drive.

Among those at Monday's memorial was Lechner's fiancee, Cheryl Puckelwartz of Arlington Heights, but she was too overcome with emotion to comment.

Lechner met Puckelwartz while working as a warehouse manager in Wauconda. He lived in Buffalo Grove with his grandmother, Laverne May, and took care of her. He lived in the house for many years and also helped take care of his grandfather John May, who died in 2007.

"All of us basically grew up with him," said 22-year-old Olena Yaroshenko. She said they both attended Cooper Middle School and Buffalo Grove High School.

"He was a great kid. I don't even understand how this could happen to him at all. He had the biggest heart ever. He never did any harm to anybody else."

Yaroshenko said she was at the scene of the accident around a half-hour after it happened. She was told he had died soon after the paramedics arrived.

Yaroshenko said her friend had recently gotten a new job and was doing well.

"He had his head on straight," she added.

She said motorcycles were his longtime interest. "He grew up around motorcycles. He loved them."

"The guy was a jack of all trades," said another of Lechner's friend, Adam Villarreal. Lechner was an accomplished cook who was proficient with electronics and carpentry, Villarreal said.

"Anything that you needed done he could do for you."

He said Lechner was on his way to meet his Puckelwartz for lunch when the accident occurred.

"He was about his friends," Villareal added. "He liked to ride his bike and he liked cars. The kid was a car fanatic."

Another friend, Jim Tiltges, said he'll always think of Lechner as having a great sense of humor.

"He had a gift to make people smile. He was in a room and everybody smiled. Him drinking a glass of milk was funny.

"He never did anything wrong to anybody and respected everybody. I can't think of one person that has ever had a problem with him."

Visitation for Mike Lechner will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at Burnett-Dane Funeral Home Ltd., 120 W. Park Ave. in Libertyville. Services and interment will be held on Friday and Saturday in Elkhorn City and Draffin, Ky.

Survivors include his mother, Rhonda (Scott) Goldufsky of Mundelein; father, Michael (Suzan) Lechner of Kenosha, Wis.; sisters, Stephanie (Tony) Nelson, Ashley (Kevin) Jensen and Tatum Goldufsky; brother, Cody Goldufsky; grandparents, Laverne May, and George and Carol Lechner.

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