St. Charles police veteran dies after crash

A veteran St. Charles police officer died Thursday, nearly three weeks after he and three others -- including another officer -- were seriously injured in a head-on collision in unincorporated Virgil Township.

The news of Officer Vaughn Olson's death came as a shock to the local law enforcement community. His colleagues expected the 41-year-old Maple Park man to return to work later this month, Officer Jeff Finley said.

Just last week, when Finley visited Olson at Marianjoy Rehabilitation Hospital in Wheaton, the officer was upbeat, displaying a "really positive attitude," Finley said.

But at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, Olson was found unresponsive and not breathing on the bathroom floor of his room at Marianjoy, according to the St. Charles Police Department. He was pronounced dead 45 minutes later.

A 15-year department veteran, Olson worked in the department's traffic unit and also for the combined Kane County Sheriff's Office/St. Charles police SWAT team. As a traffic unit member, Vaughn conducted traffic studies, wrote grants and reconstructed accidents.

"He'd be the one who would go to these terrible fatal accidents and put them together," Finley said of Olson. "He was a very talented and dedicated officer."

Olson was a passenger in a minivan being driven by fellow St. Charles police officer Michael Griesbaum, 41, of DeKalb, at the time of the accident July 14. Griesbaum was treated and released from Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

The men were heading home from work at 12:24 a.m. when Griesbaum's minivan struck a Ford Taurus on Route 38 near Meredith Road, according to an accident report. Griesbaum told sheriff's deputies he swerved to avoid a vehicle at Meredith.

The Taurus' driver, 19-year-old Mitchell Westerlin and passenger, 18-year-old Melanie Carlson, both of Elburn, also were hospitalized. Carlson was released from Geneva's Delnor-Community Hospital Thursday; Westerlin's condition was unknown as of Thursday.

Olson sustained a fractured pelvis in the accident. He was recently seen using a walker at a family party he was allowed to leave Marianjoy to attend, Finley said. Marianjoy admitted Olson last week for additional rehabilitation after he was treated at Delnor.

A Kane County Sheriff's Office spokesman said the accident is under investigation.

"We don't know if speed was a contributing factor," sheriff's Lt. Patrick Gengler said. "We do know Griesbaum said there was a car coming through the intersection and he took evasive action to avoid hitting it."

That's when the minivan crashed into Westerlin's Taurus, Gengler said. But officers have yet to find the driver of that third vehicle, Gengler said.

Olson's death comes more than two years after another veteran St. Charles officer, Sgt. Dan Figgins, died of a heart attack in the line of duty. And retired St. Charles police Cmdr. Kent Sheaffer died of cancer last month.

"We've had it pretty bad the last couple of years," Finley said.

City employees this week were grieving the loss of Dennis DeWitte, the mayor's cousin and a 30-year employee of the electric department, who died after a heart attack Saturday.

"This is another dark moment for the city family," Mayor Don DeWitte said. "To lose two valued employees like this in the same week, it's just difficult. I'm shaken."

Funeral arrangements are pending.