Body found in burning car at Dixon’s Lowell Park

Editor’s Note: An update to this story is available here.

DIXON – County officials and federal agents are investigating the discovery of a body found in a burning car Thursday morning at Dixon’s Lowell Park.

The Dixon Rural Fire Department was called to Lowell Park’s boat trailer parking lot about 9 a.m. Thursday for a report of a vehicle fire, Lee County Sheriff Clay Whelan said Thursday afternoon. Whelan, who was at the scene, described the fire as the result of a vehicle explosion.

“Once Dixon Rural Fire arrived on-scene and began to extinguish the vehicle, it was discovered that there was a body sitting inside the driver’s seat of the vehicle,” Whelan said.

Lowell Park is 4 miles north of Dixon off Lowell Park Road.

Whelan said evidence points to an explosion in the passenger compartment of the vehicle. The Illinois State Fire Marshal’s Office and U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents were called in to assist with the investigation.

The sheriff would not comment on whether the car was registered locally and said he could not identify the person found in the vehicle.

“At this point, we don’t know the identity of the individual,” Whelan said.

An autopsy will be conducted Friday at 1 p.m., Lee County Coroner Jesse Partington said.