Man who died in Lake in the Hills crash loved motorcycles, Batman and the Punisher, his grandchildren

Jessica Muniz said her father was the coolest dad on the block to the kids who lived in the neighborhood in which she grew up.

The neighborhood kids would always know Frank Muniz was home when they heard the engine of his motorcycle or car. They would run over to him and ask to ride on the bike. No matter how exhausted Frank Muniz was from his work as a truck driver, he took the time to make the kids happy with a slow ride to the end of the block and back.

“He was like a big kid,” Jessica Muniz recalled. “He always had that happy personality.”

Frank Muniz, 52, of Chicago died in a crash involving multiple motorcycles Sunday in Lake in the Hills. He died of blunt trauma, according to the McHenry County Coroner’s Office.

Lake in the Hills police were dispatched about 11 a.m. Sunday to Virginia Road near Pingree Road after one motorcyclist in a group of seven lost control, resulting in a collision involving four vehicles, according to a news release.

Ashley Eccles, the department’s spokesperson, said Friday that there were no updates to the investigation of the crash.

Kari Minasola of Trout Valley – a bystander – and Crystal Lake police performed lifesaving measures on one of the motorcyclists as other emergency responders arrived, Lake in the Hills police said in the release.

Coming back from yoga Sunday, Minasola noticed two cars ahead of her and a couple of motorcycles on the ground, with some parked next to them. She pulled around, parked and asked what happened.

“I’ve known too many people who have died on motorcycles,” Minasola said.

Another woman, who Minasola said was a teacher, already had stopped and was counting as one of the people Frank Muniz was riding with gave him chest compressions.

“Everybody there was trying to help them,” Minasola said.

As a teacher herself, Minasola gets certified in CPR every year. But she never had to do it before Sunday.

When she got home, Minasola talked to her husband about what happened.

“I cried a little bit because it was just sad,” Minasola said. “I just was praying that there [would be] a miracle.”

“I’m so glad that there were people like that other teacher that stopped to help,” she said. “I just pray if anything ever happens to me or my kids or anybody, I just pray that somebody helps.”

Frank Muniz was 52 when he died; he would have been 53 in May. He had four children who Jessica Muniz said were “everything” to him and four grandchildren he doted on.

When Jessica Muniz would post a picture of them on Facebook, her dad was the first one to comment: “I love my grandchildren so much,” he’d write.

Nicolas Muniz, Frank’s older son, attributes his own love of cars and skateboarding to his father.

A “free spirit,” Frank Muniz would take Nicolas to car shows and even won some competitions.

“We’d pull up to these car events, and all these people knew him,” Nicolas Muniz said. “It was like living with someone who was super famous.”

The father and son would have one-on-one talks for hours.

Frank Muniz had been in some motorcycle and car crashes in the past, but it didn’t scare him from riding again, Jessica Muniz said.

Instead, Frank decided he would learn from them, eventually going from a fast motorcyclist to a cruiser, she said.

“He started being safe and hanging out with people who don’t want to be as reckless,” Jessica Muniz said. “That’s the group that he was with that day.”

Frank Muniz’s love of motorcycles started when he was a teenager.

“I think he felt some sort of freedom and peace,” Jessica Muniz said.

Aside from vehicles, Frank Muniz also was into DC and Marvel comics – his favorite superheroes from each were Batman and the Punisher – and old black-and-white TV shows he shared with his children and their children.

“He was so social,” Jessica Muniz said. “One thing I always love to say about him was you could put my dad in a room of 20 strangers, and he’s going to come out of that room with 20 new friends.”

Jessica Muniz said her dad was the glue holding the family together, so the past week was hard for them.

Although her parents were no longer together, they still were best friends, and Frank Muniz was taking care of his mother after the death of his own father.

“She’s been taking it extremely hard,” Jessica Muniz said.

To take care of memorial and burial services, Jessica Muniz started a GoFundMe in her father’s honor. During the first 24 hours it was live, the family raised close to $10,000, and by Friday evening, it had reached $15,060.

For both Nicolas and Jessica Muniz, seeing that was amazing.

“It just shows how much people loved my dad and how much he meant to so many people,” Jessica said. “It makes my heart feel so full, and it makes this really horrific situation just a tiny bit better.”