Missing Schaumburg man’s remains found in Indiana

Authorities confirmed midafternoon Thursday that the remains found Tuesday in a field in Fountain County, Ind., are those of a missing Schaumburg man.

Fountain County Coroner Joe Gritten matched the dental records of 19-year-old Kevin Heinl, who has been missing since early March, with the bones found in a field along County Road 650 North, a few miles away from where Heinl’s car was found abandoned March 8.

Kevin Heinl’s wallet was found with identification inside along with his body.

An autopsy is scheduled Friday to determine the cause of death.

For Heinl’s family, this news offers some closure.

“Obviously, we’re devastated,” said Heinl’s brother, Chris Heinl of Streamwood. “The hardest part right now is we don’t know what happened to him. A 19-year-old kid just doesn’t turn up dead in a cornfield.”

Chris Heinl said his family is upset it took the Fountain County Sheriff’s police so long to come up with any leads on his brother’s disappearance.

“I’m so disappointed and frustrated with the way they handled the case from day one,” he said. “There is no reason my brother had to lay out there for two-and-a-half months. They should have gotten dogs. They should have done a helicopter search. They never really made any kind of attempt to do that.”

Fountain County Sheriff Bill Sanders could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday on the criticism, but he did say at the time the car was found that police combed the area, checking fields, bridges, abandoned barns and houses.

Heinl’s family took a variety of steps in their own search. “My family hired a private investigator. We spent $10,000,” Chris Heinl said, adding that the family also reached out through social networking sites and fliers seeking clues.

Heinl left his parents’ home in Schaumburg the afternoon of March 8, supposedly for a new job at Rainforest Café at Woodfield Shopping Center. He never showed up.

The Conant High School graduate’s 2003 Honda Civic was found abandoned about 9 p.m. that night half-mile north of Newtown, Ind., a small town about 35 miles east of Danville, Ill., by sheriff’s police.

Police in Indiana initially followed Heinl’s car after it passed the scene of an accident at high speed. Officers found the car abandoned off Hwy. 341 between a large cemetery and grain elevator, with its engine and windshield wiper blades still running and the driver side door open.

Heinl’s cellphone was located four days later in the hands of a 14-year-old girl from Newtown, who identified Heinl from a photograph as the man who approached her on the street the morning of March 12, handed her a cellphone and walked away, authorities said.

That was the last anyone saw Heinl.