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Boy Interrupted: Teen vanished 40 years ago today
01/31/2012, 9:32 am
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Dan Churney, danc@mywebtimes.com, 815-431-4050
http://mywebtimes.com/
What happened to Dermot F. Kelly?
The 16-year-old Oglesby boy hasn't been seen since Sunday, Jan. 30, 1972.
At 1:15 p.m. that bitterly cold day, Dermot left his home on Point Lookout, a wooded neighborhood near the south bank of the Vermilion River. The boy was clad in a black-and-white jacket and blue-jeans. An Accutron watch was strapped to his wrist and a .22-caliber rifle was in his hands, as he told his parents he was going to go target shooting. Dermot headed east along the river.
After Dermot had not returned by 3 p.m., his parents called police. They said they were worried because Dermot was an introspective boy who had been despondent. They feared for his welfare. By 5 p.m. teams were organized and scouring the woods. Among the searchers were police and civil defense volunteers from Ottawa, Streator and Marseilles, as well as river rescue units from Peru and Ottawa, and students from La Salle-Peru High School and Illinois Valley Community College.
Overnight the mercury dropped to three below.
At 2 p.m. Monday, Dermot's jacket and boots were found on an icy bank of the Vermilion where that river fed into the Illinois River. A set of bare foot prints in the snow led from the bank 20 feet out onto the partially frozen river. There were no return prints. An impression of a rifle was also present in the snow.
Within the next few days, snowmobiles, motorcycles and two aircraft were used in the search, which took in Starved Rock State Park and the nearby Lehigh Cement quarry. Deputy Sheriff Gus Freschi roamed with his tracking dog, but did not pick up a scent.
However, with the evidence at the river's edge, divers were also brought in. On Wednesday, a rifle believed to have been Dermot's was found just below the ice in the river. His gun had been mounted with a telescopic sight and this rifle did not have one, but it was presumed the scope had detached in the water.
By the end of the week, a barge passed on the Illinois River, disturbing the ice and complicating the search. This and the continuing frigid temperatures prompted searchers to call off their efforts. Dermot was never found.
Dermot was a junior at the then all boys St. Bede Academy between Peru and Spring Valley. He was in class the Friday before, but had missed several weeks in the fall, while he was receiving medical treatment in the Chicago area, the school's head said at the time.
"He was just too smart to be in school," one of Dermot's classmates told the La Salle News-Tribune, adding Dermot regularly did his homework for him.
Dermot's parents were Asta and Kevin Kelly. Kevin was a lawyer. Dermot had three sisters and one brother. Two of his sisters have become physicians. The nearest one lives in suburban Chicago. None of them could be reached by The Times for this story.
In October 1973, the wife of the Kelly family doctor reported she believed she had seen Dermot in Chicago, but had not been able to approach and confirm it was him. The family reached out to Chicago Tribune columnist Robert Weidrich, who penned a story Dec. 15, 1974, that the family believed Dermot was still alive and had run away to start a new life, free of the problems in society that so vexed him.
The family also distributed missing person posters, on which they wrote Dermot "wanted to make a life of his own and do it on his own."
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children was established in 1984. On Feb. 9, 1985, Kevin Kelly contacted the Center with information about his son. The Agency continues to list Dermot as missing. In fact, it is one of the Agency's oldest cases.
Melinda Stevens, Director of the Center's Missing Children Division, said there have been leads over the years that Dermot is dead, including a report a body was found, but which could not be identified.
"We keep hope here," Stevens pointed out.
Stevens said her agency did not know Dermot's jacket, boots and rifle were found soon after he disappeared, until informed by The Times.
In 1992, Dermot's father went to court and had him declared legally dead. "I have searched for him in many states of the United States of America for the past 20 years," his father told the judge in explaining his vain attempt to find Dermot.
Oglesby Police Chief Jim Knoblauch said his department still treats the Dermot Kelly case as an open missing person investigation, but "no leads have developed in years."
Did Dermot die in the river and was swept away?
Randy Phelps is the former captain of the Ottawa River Rescue unit and is its current medical officer.
"We almost always find them, one way or another," Phelps said. "The frozen river would have made it harder, but eventually he should have turned up."
Dermot's father died in 2003. In his obituary, Dermot was not mentioned. Dermot's mother died in 2011; her obituary listed him as one of her survivors.
Sharing generates awareness,
Awareness generates support,
Support generates HOPE.
Missing Loved Ones of Illinois
http://
NamUs MP#6257
https://
http://
Boy Interrupted: Teen vanished 40 years ago today
01/31/2012, 9:32 am
Comment on this story | Print this story | Email this story
Dan Churney, danc@mywebtimes.com, 815-431-4050
http://mywebtimes.com/
What happened to Dermot F. Kelly?
The 16-year-old Oglesby boy hasn't been seen since Sunday, Jan. 30, 1972.
At 1:15 p.m. that bitterly cold day, Dermot left his home on Point Lookout, a wooded neighborhood near the south bank of the Vermilion River. The boy was clad in a black-and-white jacket and blue-jeans. An Accutron watch was strapped to his wrist and a .22-caliber rifle was in his hands, as he told his parents he was going to go target shooting. Dermot headed east along the river.
After Dermot had not returned by 3 p.m., his parents called police. They said they were worried because Dermot was an introspective boy who had been despondent. They feared for his welfare. By 5 p.m. teams were organized and scouring the woods. Among the searchers were police and civil defense volunteers from Ottawa, Streator and Marseilles, as well as river rescue units from Peru and Ottawa, and students from La Salle-Peru High School and Illinois Valley Community College.
Overnight the mercury dropped to three below.
At 2 p.m. Monday, Dermot's jacket and boots were found on an icy bank of the Vermilion where that river fed into the Illinois River. A set of bare foot prints in the snow led from the bank 20 feet out onto the partially frozen river. There were no return prints. An impression of a rifle was also present in the snow.
Within the next few days, snowmobiles, motorcycles and two aircraft were used in the search, which took in Starved Rock State Park and the nearby Lehigh Cement quarry. Deputy Sheriff Gus Freschi roamed with his tracking dog, but did not pick up a scent.
However, with the evidence at the river's edge, divers were also brought in. On Wednesday, a rifle believed to have been Dermot's was found just below the ice in the river. His gun had been mounted with a telescopic sight and this rifle did not have one, but it was presumed the scope had detached in the water.
By the end of the week, a barge passed on the Illinois River, disturbing the ice and complicating the search. This and the continuing frigid temperatures prompted searchers to call off their efforts. Dermot was never found.
Dermot was a junior at the then all boys St. Bede Academy between Peru and Spring Valley. He was in class the Friday before, but had missed several weeks in the fall, while he was receiving medical treatment in the Chicago area, the school's head said at the time.
"He was just too smart to be in school," one of Dermot's classmates told the La Salle News-Tribune, adding Dermot regularly did his homework for him.
Dermot's parents were Asta and Kevin Kelly. Kevin was a lawyer. Dermot had three sisters and one brother. Two of his sisters have become physicians. The nearest one lives in suburban Chicago. None of them could be reached by The Times for this story.
In October 1973, the wife of the Kelly family doctor reported she believed she had seen Dermot in Chicago, but had not been able to approach and confirm it was him. The family reached out to Chicago Tribune columnist Robert Weidrich, who penned a story Dec. 15, 1974, that the family believed Dermot was still alive and had run away to start a new life, free of the problems in society that so vexed him.
The family also distributed missing person posters, on which they wrote Dermot "wanted to make a life of his own and do it on his own."
The Center for Missing and Exploited Children was established in 1984. On Feb. 9, 1985, Kevin Kelly contacted the Center with information about his son. The Agency continues to list Dermot as missing. In fact, it is one of the Agency's oldest cases.
Melinda Stevens, Director of the Center's Missing Children Division, said there have been leads over the years that Dermot is dead, including a report a body was found, but which could not be identified.
"We keep hope here," Stevens pointed out.
Stevens said her agency did not know Dermot's jacket, boots and rifle were found soon after he disappeared, until informed by The Times.
In 1992, Dermot's father went to court and had him declared legally dead. "I have searched for him in many states of the United States of America for the past 20 years," his father told the judge in explaining his vain attempt to find Dermot.
Oglesby Police Chief Jim Knoblauch said his department still treats the Dermot Kelly case as an open missing person investigation, but "no leads have developed in years."
Did Dermot die in the river and was swept away?
Randy Phelps is the former captain of the Ottawa River Rescue unit and is its current medical officer.
"We almost always find them, one way or another," Phelps said. "The frozen river would have made it harder, but eventually he should have turned up."
Dermot's father died in 2003. In his obituary, Dermot was not mentioned. Dermot's mother died in 2011; her obituary listed him as one of her survivors.
Sharing generates awareness,
Awareness generates support,
Support generates HOPE.
Missing Loved Ones of Illinois
http://
NamUs MP#6257
https://
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