Coroner’s office IDs man killed in Holiday Hills boat vs. tree crash

The McHenry County Coroner’s Office identified a 58-year-old Fox River Grove man as the person killed Wednesday in a fatal boat crash Wednesday in Holiday Hills.

Raymond Jezierski died after a speed boat that he was in left the Fox River and came to rest in the yard of a Holliday Hills residence, the McHenry County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.

A Thursday morning autopsy showed that Jezierski died of blunt trauma to the chest, according to a news release from the McHenry County Coroner’s Office.

Toxicology results were pending as of Thursday afternoon.

The situation began about 4 p.m. Wednesday when a witness noticed a boat with smoke coming from its engine along the shore, Illinois Department of Natural Resources spokesman Tim Schweizer said in an email Thursday. The boat’s resting location was about a half mile south of the Stratton Lock and Dam on the Fox River, Schweizer said.

“The witness used a fire extinguisher on the engine and observed a person trapped between the boat and a tree, believed the man to be deceased, and called 9-1-1,” Schweizer said in the email. “McHenry County deputies arrived and secured the scene until Conservation Police arrived. No additional information is available at this time as Conservation Police continue to investigate the incident.”