Benjamin Oberto
Courtesy of Laura Leatherberry
A man from New Berlin, Wisconsin reported missing on Thursday was found dead inside his partially submerged vehicle in Rosemont on Friday, authorities said.
Benjamin Oberto, 45, was located by Rosemont Police Department divers inside his Subaru Impreza with Wisconsin registration. The car was spotted in a creek at the bottom of an embankment near the curve of the Interstate 90 eastbound ramp to northbound Interstate 294, police said.
Illinois State Police have taken over the investigation, but there was no further information immediately available Saturday.
Shaw Media previously reported that Oberto had not been seen since he left the 1776 Restaurant on Route 14 in Crystal Lake just before 9 p.m. Wednesday.
His wife of 11 years, Laura Leatherberry, said she spoke to him by phone at about 6 p.m. Wednesday when he told her he was on his way home for what should have been an approximately three-hour trip.
He was not home by 9 p.m., but security footage shows him leaving the Crystal Lake restaurant at about that time.
Leatherberry told Shaw Media that at 9:27 p.m. the couple’s iPass account shows that Oberto’s car went through the Elgin toll booth at Route 31. She filed a missing person report with New Berlin police on Thursday morning.
When police pinged Oberto’s cell phone, they found the last time it had been used was at 9:47 p.m. Wednesday in the area of Rosemont and O’Hare.
TSA was able to confirm that Oberto did not fly out of O’Hare, and the car’s iPass showed it had not passed through any other tollbooths, Leatherberry said.
• Shaw Media contributed to this report.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
