Crash victim was musician, former honor roll student from suburbs

A 24-year-old musician and former honor roll student at Wauconda High School was killed Saturday when his car went off the road and hit two large trees in South Barrington.

Dieter Moreno, of an unincorporated area near Island Lake, was traveling north in a blue Subaru Legacy on Route 59 about one-half mile north of Route 72. The vehicle veered across the southbound lane and into the ditch on the west side of Route 59, striking the trees.

The crash is still under investigation, said South Barrington police Sgt. Sam Parma.

Police were called just before 7 a.m. about a vehicle off the road along Route 59, about a half mile north of Route 72. While the caller had believed the vehicle was unoccupied, officers found the dead man behind the wheel of the blue Subaru Legacy, Parma said.

Police said Moreno was pronounced dead at the scene. Parma said the Cook County Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy and the Major Crash Assistant Team will investigate the crash.

Moreno played guitar for a metal band called As History Repeats, which was based in the suburbs.

A member of the band, Joey Lofendo of Bartlett, said Moreno was a strong supporter of the local music scene.

"He was a fun, caring person," Lofendo said, adding that Moreno was interested in science as well as music.

On his Facebook page, Moreno said he had studied biology at the College of Lake County in Grayslake.

Lofendo said the band was scheduled to perform next month at Danny's on Douglas in Elgin.

Moreno's aunt, Heidi Osterhout, called her nephew a "great kid." Music was a great passion, she said, but added, "When he was younger, he always wanted to be a doctor." Indeed, she said, he was pursuing "something in the medical field where he could still continue helping people outside of the world of being an MD."

She described him as a hard worker and skilled in a variety of areas. "He would diagram how to break down an amp and rewire things," she said.

She said that he was still working on his degree, slogging his way through classes. "He worked his way through school and was taking one or two classes at a time and working as many hours as he could work. He was an unusually responsible kid," she said.

She also remembers that he was adored by his family, fondly describing him as looking like "a rocker with a scruffy beard, which he could never grow well."

She recalled her nephew's generosity, such as when he would drop money into boxes at church for the needy and homeless.

Although she does not know the details, she said it is her understanding that he had been conducting business related to his band and was dropping a friend at home in Elgin the night of his death.

Friends left tributes on Moreno's Facebook page, including Lofendo, who wrote, "You were such a good musician and a good supporter of the scene and it was fun having band practice with you."

The page contains a number of posts in which Moreno talks about his classes and promotional ideas for shows and shares links that reflect his interest in science, including one about Einstein's general theory of relativity.

Lofendo said plans are in the works for a memorial show that would involve several bands. Funeral arrangements are pending.

• Daily Herald staff writer Katlyn Smith contributed to this report.