Men who died in Crystal Lake car fire and Harvard crash are ID’d by coroner

The McHenry County Coroner’s Office has released the identities of the two men who died in unrelated incidents in Harvard and Crystal Lake last week, one a car crash and the other a car fire.

Oskar Hernandez Martinez Jr., 20, of Harvard, was pronounced dead at the scene of a single-vehicle crash in Harvard early on Aug. 21. An autopsy performed on Friday found blunt force trauma as the cause of death, according to a coroner’s office news release. A toxicology report is pending. The coroner’s office is working with the Harvard Police Department, the Harvard Fire Protection District and the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office during the investigation, according to the release.

A black 2000 Mustang was found 100 feet of the roadway in a heavily wooded area of Harvard early Wednesday after two police cars were damaged responding to a speeding car, Harvard Chief of Police Tyson Bauman said.

The responding squad cars struck a metal utility guy wire hanging low over North Division Street. Those low wires were caused by the suspect car colliding with and snapping a power pole adjacent to a home in the 7300 block of North Division Street, Bauman said.

According to an online obituary for Martinez, he was born in Harvard and “loved playing football, cooking, and driving his Mustang. Family was very important to him, and he enjoyed being a big brother. He loved to spend time with his girlfriend. Oskar was generous, kind, and loyal.”

Separately, the man found in a burning car at the Crystal Lake Walmart parking lot Thursday was identified as Hal Manta, 68. Manta did not have permanent address, according to the release. The coroner’s office continues to work with the Crystal Lake Police Department and the Crystal Lake Fire Rescue Department.

The Crystal Lake Police Department and Crystal Lake Fire Rescue Department responded to a call at 5:39 a.m. Thursday to a parking lot located at 1205 S. Route 31 for a reported car on fire. Several witnesses reported a person was in the car and bystanders had made attempts to remove the person from the car, according to Crystal Lake police.