Illinois car crash that killed four at after-school program wasn’t targeted, say investigators

The driver has not been arrested but toxicology results are pending

Four dead, six injured after car crashes through Illinois daycare (FirstAlert4)

The Illinois after-school program at the center of a fatal crash that left three children and one young adult dead Monday was not a targeted attack, state police have said.

Officials responded Monday afternoon at the YNOT After School Camp in Chatham, about 211 miles southwest of Chicago, after a vehicle drove into the east side of the building. The car had left a nearby roadway for unknown reasons and travelled through a 78-acre farm field before reaching the daycare center at a high rate of speed.

Marianne Akers, 44, of Chatham, a village of 14,000, was driving the SUV and the only person in the car. She was transported to an area hospital for evaluation, and toxicology results are pending.

The car hit multiple people outside the building, then continued through the structure, striking people inside before exiting through the west wall.

Akers is not currently in custody as the cause of the incident remains under investigation.

Authorities confirmed that those killed in the crash were Alma Buhnerkempe and Kathryn Corley, both 7, Ainsley Johnson, 8, and Rylee Britton, 18.

The Sangamon County Coroner determined they all died from multiple blunt-force injuries. Six additional children were taken to area hospitals, and one remains in critical condition. The injured were transported by ambulance and helicopter.

News footage of the scene showed a police response, an ambulance and a large hole in the wall where the car had crashed through.

The after-school program, whose name YNOT stands for Youth Needing Other Things, began in 2002 and offers affordable daycare and a summer camp.

The center provides three-hour, post-dismissal, latch-key care for grade school children in the Ball-Chatham district. Parents can direct and designate school transportation offices to drop children off at the daycare location, the organization’s website states.

On Wednesday, a banner at the top of the site read: “Please keep the families of Chatham YNOT and our staff in your prayers. We could sure use them.”

“I cannot gather the words to express much of anything that will make sense in print,” said Jamie Loftus, the after-school program’s founder.

“However, I do know that our families who suffered loss and injury today are hurting very, very badly. They are friends and their kids are like our kids.”

Molly Jo Ehlert Lamb, the mother of a boy who attends the daycare, wrote on Facebook that while her child was unharmed, the ordeal was “unimaginable, scary and a nightmare.”

A GoFundMe to support the victims’ families was set up after the crash and has raised $109,000, well beyond a $30,000 goal. Village officials are hosting a candlelit vigil Thursday at Glenwood High School to honor the deceased.