Car problems ruled out in woman's drowning at Harper pond

Mechanical problems are not to blame for a car plunging into a pond on Harper College's Palatine campus Thursday, causing a 64-year-old Rolling Meadows woman inside to drown, authorities said Friday.

Victoria Auer's death was a drowning, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office, though cardiovascular disease was named a contributing factor in what's being ruled an accidental death.

Dr. Steven White, who performed the autopsy on Auer Friday, said the medical findings don't fully explain how she came to be in the pond and it is unclear whether she suffered a medical event before the car drove into the pond.

The investigation so far ruled out foul play or a problem with Auer's 1999 Saturn, said Phil Burdick, chief communications officer for Harper College. Results of toxicology tests on Auer are expected in three to six weeks, he added.

The investigation is being conducted by Palatine police, Harper College police and the medical examiner's office.

Auer had lost a couple of her closest friends in recent years but found herself a new group of companions who regularly attended plays together at Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre, according to a friend.

Before her death Thursday, she was looking forward to a visit this weekend from her daughter and at least one grandchild from Denver, said Janice Koontz of Elgin.

Harper officials said Auer had taken continuing education classes there in 1997 and 1998, but that was the last and only known connection between her and the Palatine school. An investigation has not yet discovered why Auer was on campus Thursday, Burdick said.

Koontz said she could only speculate that the campus was along the route Auer took between her home and the location of her new job selling Oreck vacuum cleaners in Schaumburg.

“We're going to miss her, and this is certainly a shock,” she added.

Koontz said she's known Auer between 10 and 15 years. They met through a mutual friend who organized regular outings for a group of about seven to Marriott's Lincolnshire Theatre.

But it was Auer who took over the responsibility for organizing the gatherings since that mutual friend developed dementia, Koontz said.

After two of her closest Chicago-area friends passed away, Auer looked to the outings for regular companionship, Koontz said.

While Auer had considered moving out to Denver to be with her daughter, the time was never right for her to sell her Rolling Meadows home, Koontz added.

Auer also has a son who lives in Las Vegas, she said.

Trudy Bentley Rech, a childhood friend who now lives in Naples, Fla., said Auer befriended her when Rech's family moved to the house behind hers in Franklin Park. Though Auer was a year older, they remained close throughout grade school and their years at East Leyden High School.

Auer attended the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, graduating in 1968. Soon after, she married fellow student Rick Legue, who had portrayed the university's symbol, Chief Illiniwek, at sporting events. The couple later divorced.

The two friends gradually lost contact over the years but recently reconnected on Facebook, Rech said.

“I'm just shaking,” she said of the news. “It's just a total shock.”

Palatine firefighters responded to a report of the submerged car at 12:07 p.m. Thursday, and a dive team recovered Auer from inside the vehicle at 12:26 p.m.

Paramedics transported her to Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights, where she was pronounced dead.

Divers remained in the water for another 90 minutes looking for other possible occupants but found none.

Only the top of the car's roof was initially visible above the surface of the pond, about 150 feet from the nearest paved area of the parking lot on the north side of the college, near the Euclid Avenue entrance.