Lanark farmer, 27, crushed by truck

LANARK – A 27-year-old Lanark man died Tuesday at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria after his chest was crushed underneath a truck.

Joshua R. Heeren, 27, a Morrison native, was trapped underneath a truck that came to rest after it rolled downhill on a county road a couple of miles northwest of Secor in Woodford County.

Heeren, who was working in Eureka, was attempting to retrieve the truck, which broke loose as a compact tractor was being loaded onto the flatbed trailer the truck was pulling.

Heeren, known as “Meatball” to his friends, graduated from Eastland High School in Lanark in 2001 and from the University of Illinois in 2005. He was a farmer and an agricultural research manager for Monsanto.

He is survived by his mother, Deb Noordhoff of Lanark; his father, Lee E. Heeren of Rockford; his sisters, Tonya Wiersema of Milledgeville and Tiffany Heeren of Chicago, and his girlfriend, Hannah Imlay of Champaign.

His obituary appears on Page A4.