I-290 SUV incident: Questions remain as driver's death still under investigation

CHICAGO - More than a week after a mysterious incident involving an SUV brought westbound lanes of the Eisenhower Expressway near Mannheim Road to a standstill for nearly 10 hours, key questions about what happened — and what caused the death of the driver — remain unanswered.

The backstory:

The large-scale law enforcement response immediately drew attention.

Illinois State Police were joined by Westchester police, the FBI, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Federal authorities ultimately took the lead in the investigation.

Authorities have publicly identified the driver as 47-year-old Jorge Vaca. FOX 32 attempted to locate Vaca through addresses linked to him in Cicero but was unable to confirm his current residence.

The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office continues to list Vaca's cause and manner of death as pending.

While investigators have released few details, sources familiar with the investigation have shared differing accounts of what may have happened inside the SUV.

To better understand what could have caused the damage seen at the scene, FOX 32 spoke with Sean Dennis of the United States Bomb Technician Association. Dennis is a former bomb squad commander who reviewed video of the vehicle.

Based on what he observed, Dennis said the damage did not appear consistent with the type of catastrophic blast often associated with large explosive devices.

"It's some kind of detonation like that inside a vehicle and you don't have the windows coming out, you don't have all this carnage that you would only see on TV or in a movie where a car explodes and a bomb goes off," Dennis said. "If you've got a small amount in there, I wouldn't see that much damage personally on the outside of a vehicle like that."

One possibility that has emerged during the investigation is that fireworks may have been involved.

"If they're saying it was a firework and that's what they're looking at, that does fit the narrative," Dennis said. "It fits 100%. What I saw from the video of the car, it does fit. So I could see easily it being some sort of firework."

Dig deeper:

That possibility raises another question: Can fireworks detonate inside a vehicle without someone actively igniting them?

Dennis said improperly made homemade fireworks could potentially ignite on their own under certain circumstances.

"If someone did make some kind of homemade firework and didn't do something correctly, it could potentially self-detonate," he said. "You're mixing chemicals. You're mixing different powders together."

Still, investigators have not publicly ruled out other possibilities.

Early in the investigation, sources told FOX 32 that the possibility of an explosive device had not been completely eliminated.

Dennis said he personally finds the fireworks' theory more consistent with the available evidence but cautioned against drawing definitive conclusions.

"I can see it being a firework, not a bomb," Dennis said. "If it was a bomb or some kind of improvised explosive device, I may have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. But it could have been. I'm not saying it wasn't."

What's next:

FOX 32 has filed multiple public records requests seeking the 911 calls that first alerted authorities to the incident.

Illinois State Police have responded that they need additional time to locate and review the records to determine whether they are exempt from release, require redactions, or could interfere with the ongoing investigation.

Until those records are released and investigators provide additional information, many of the questions surrounding what happened on the Eisenhower Expressway that day remain unanswered.

 

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