Illinois State Police officers found a person dead inside a disabled passenger car sitting in the southbound lanes of I-94 at 35th Street on Sunday, prompting a death investigation on Chicago's South Side. Troopers say the vehicle had stopped along one of the busiest stretches of highway in the city, right where the Dan Ryan Expressway runs past the ballpark and a major transit hub.
The discovery, first reported by ABC7 Chicago, has officers conducting a death investigation on the interstate, also known as the Dan Ryan Expressway. Illinois State Police said there was no danger to the public as the investigation continues. The agency has not released details about the identity of the person found inside the car, the cause of death, or how long the vehicle may have been stopped before troopers arrived.
Why State Troopers, Not Chicago Police, Lead the Investigation
Jurisdiction over state highways and interstate corridors across Cook County, including I-94, belongs to Illinois State Police Troop 3, based in Des Plaines, rather than the Chicago Police Department. That authority is why troopers, not city officers, are handling the death investigation near 35th Street. Troop 3 also oversees criminal investigations along interstate corridors throughout the county, and in May the unit launched a specialized expressway enforcement surge targeting high-speed driving, shoulder violations, and violent crime across Chicagoland interstates, relying in part on increased overnight patrols.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's Office holds statutory authority to investigate any sudden, unexpected, or suspicious death in the county and typically performs forensic examinations within two days to establish a cause and manner of death. The office processes more than 16,000 reported deaths annually and accepts roughly 5,600 for formal forensic investigation. It remains unknown whether the person found in the disabled car near 35th Street died of medical distress, some other non-criminal cause, or something investigators are still working to determine.
A Dangerous Stretch of Highway Near the Ballpark
The 35th Street stretch of the Dan Ryan sits along the border of the Armour Square and Bronzeville neighborhoods, directly adjacent to Guaranteed Rate Field, the CTA Red Line's Sox-35th station, and the Metra Rock Island line — a dense corridor where highway traffic converges with elevated trains and regional rail. The Dan Ryan itself is among the most congested roadways in the state, carrying an average daily traffic volume exceeding 300,000 vehicles across its 14-lane express-local system, according to a personal injury law firm's roadway data cited alongside Wikipedia's entry on the expressway.
Illinois' expanded Move Over Law, effective this past January, requires drivers approaching any disabled vehicle or emergency scene to slow down and change lanes if it's safe to do so, according to the Illinois Tollway. The law traces back to 2001, when it was enacted as Scott's Law after Chicago Fire Department Lt. Scott Gillen was struck and killed on the Dan Ryan. Separately, state vehicle code bars pedestrians from walking or standing on controlled-access highways like I-94 except when rendering emergency assistance or performing authorized maintenance work.
A Summer of Fatal Incidents on the Dan Ryan
Sunday's death investigation adds to a string of violent and fatal incidents on the Dan Ryan this summer. In late August, a 35-year-old CTA bus driver was struck and killed in a hit-and-run after exiting a vehicle on the shoulder, an incident that led state troopers to again warn stranded motorists to stay buckled inside their cars or move well off the roadway, as reported by ABC7 Chicago. On July 31, a wrong-way crash near 55th Street killed one person and critically injured two others; a 29-year-old driver was later charged with murder and kidnapping in that case, according to CBS Chicago.
Hoodline has also covered a series of other fatal crashes and violent incidents on the expressway in recent weeks, including a pedestrian killed near 87th Street in sixth fatal foot crash in weeks and a fatal hit-and-run involving a man struck outside his stranded Jeep near 47th Street. To help monitor incidents like these, Illinois State Police maintain a network of more than 300 automated license plate reader cameras along Cook County expressways under the Tamara Clayton Expressway Camera Act, a law enacted after postal worker Tamara Clayton was fatally shot on I-57 in 2019, according to Illinois State Police records.
No further details have been released about the person found dead near 35th Street, and Illinois State Police have not said whether foul play is suspected. The investigation remains active, and the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office is expected to determine the official cause and manner of death.
