Julie and Timothy Mertins killed in McHenry boat crash along Fox River as speeding boat careened into river front and onto home. Cause of crash under investigation, toxicology results pending.
A married couple were killed over the weekend after their ‘speeding boat’ careened out of control along an Illinois river front before colliding into the front yard of a home.
Surveillance footage shows Julie and Timothy Mertins’ motor boat bouncing over a rough wake as it barrels towards the shoreline of Fox River in McHenry, a city roughly 60 miles northwest of Chicago.
The vessel, a 33-foot Cobalt, barged onto the shore and continued speeding 73 feet along the grass until it smashed into a front yard of a home just on 5.40pm, Saturday, CBS Chicago reported.
Boat split in half
Sgt. Eric Schreiber with the Department of Natural Resources said the crash caused minor damage to the house. Not so for the boat which was split in half.
‘The hull of the boat was separated into two pieces,’ the department stated.
Bystanders rushed to rescue the couple, who were trapped beneath the wreckage.
Julie Mertins, 61, was pronounced dead at the scene after suffering blunt-force injuries.
Her husband Timothy Mertins, 62, survived the initial crash and was airlifted to a nearby hospital, where he died on the operating table.
His cause of death was also attributed to blunt force injuries, according to a coroner ruling.
The couple were just one month shy of celebrating their 33rd anniversary.
Authorities have yet to say what led to the crash, with toxicology reports for the pair still pending.
Investigation under way as speed eyed as toxicology report pending
Witnesses reported seeing their motorboat traveling ‘very fast’ up and down the Fox River, the IDNR said.
The boat was ‘weaving and cutting back and forth across the water’ until it hit the shoreline at a high rate of speed and hit the home, which sustained minor damage.
One witness claimed the couple appeared to be making a tight circle at a high rate of speed when they lost control of the motorboat.
The boat made a ‘huge circle around, back toward the rocks’ and made a right-hand turn still going ‘really fast,’ the woman, who asked to remain anonymous, told the Lake McHenry Scanner.
The boat did not slow down before it went airborne and crashed.
The couple were remembered as a selfless and loving pair who died doing together doing what they loved.
‘They did everything together from yard work to grocery shopping,’ their obituary read.
‘If Tim was the Captain, Julie was First Mate, and they loved getting out on the water every chance they had. They would have celebrated 33 years of marriage on October 20th.’
The deadly crash remains under investigation.
