Body found in Lake Springfield
Anne Warfield
Body found in lake
Woman apparently had been strangled
By JAYETTE BOLINSKI
STAFF WRITER
Sandy Drennan loved animals and shooting pool and was a good friend,
her older sister said.
"She was big-hearted," Caryl Aebel said outside Drennan's residence
Sunday afternoon as detectives spoke to relatives and went through
family photo albums. "If you were her friend, you were her friend.
She'd do anything for anybody."
Drennan's body was found about 10 a.m. Sunday floating in Lake
Springfield. Sources said the 41-year-old woman apparently was
strangled.
An autopsy today should reveal the cause of death.
Drennan was last seen about 5:30 p.m. Saturday at the Springfield home
she shared with her 78-year-old mother, Laura.
Investigators still were searching late Sunday for Drennan's beige
1995 four-door Oldsmobile. Police were instructed to stop the vehicle,
if seen, because it was wanted in connection with the murder
investigation.
Sangamon County Coroner Susan Boone said there were no obvious
injuries, such as stab or gunshot wounds, on Drennan's body.
Drennan's death apparently is the first murder in Springfield or
Sangamon County in 2003.
Fishermen spotted the body floating close to the bank on the west side
of Iron Bridge Road and alerted authorities. Chatham firefighters and
police pulled the body from the water.
Because it was unknown where the murder took place, Sangamon County
and Springfield authorities were investigating the crime jointly on
Sunday.
Investigators continued to search the lake in boats as late as 1 p.m.
Sunday. They combed the banks with a police dog and dusted the
guardrail on Iron Bridge Road for fingerprints.
Drennan was getting ready to go out with friends when she last was
seen. Her body was found wearing the same clothing her family
described her as wearing Saturday evening.
Aebel said she did not know much about Drennan's friends because she
often kept to herself. She was not married and had no children. She
was unemployed and had a Rottweiler named Gretchen, Aebel said.
Drennan moved in with her mother about six years ago, after her
previous house burned. She and her two siblings grew up on Price
Street. She went to Franklin Middle School and Springfield High
School. She celebrated her 41st birthday in January.
Drennan at age 12 was in a coma for nearly a week after being struck
by a car on MacArthur Boulevard. The accident happened Oct. 30, 1974,
as Drennan and a group of friends were crossing the street.
Drennan's brother, Bill, died in August 2000 of Lou Gehrig's disease.
"I'm the only one left. I told my husband I'm going to have to take
care of myself for Mom's sake," Aebel said Sunday.
Anyone with information is urged to call the sheriff's department at
753-6666, CrimeStoppers at 788-8427 or (800) 397-2288, or Springfield
police at 788-8325.
Jayette Bolinski can be reached at 788-1530 or
jayette....@sj-r.com.
http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/N04282003,b.asp
Police try to track murder victim's last hours
Two men found in car released
By SARAH ANTONACCI
STAFF WRITER
Police hope someone may have seen Sandy Drennan between the time she
left her mother's house Saturday evening and when her body was found
in Lake Springfield Sunday morning.
Drennan, 41, had been strangled with a dog leash, authorities said
Monday.
Police are not sure where Drennan was Saturday night, but they do know
she liked to play pool and was known to seek out matches at Bogie's,
2901 S. Lowell Ave.; Kirby's Pub and Grub, 3309 S. Sixth Street Road;
and several other south-side taverns with pool tables.
Drennan had straight brown hair and dark eyes, was 5-foot-2, weighed
about 100 pounds and sometimes wore glasses. She was a smoker,
authorities said, and often dressed in warm clothing. When she was
found, she was wearing a dark-colored coat.
When she left her mother's house in the 3200 block of Park Street
about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, she was driving her gold 1995 Oldsmobile
Cutlass Ciera. The car was found about 5:30 p.m. Sunday near Fourth
and Stanford streets.
Two men were inside, but neither was aware of Drennan's disappearance,
authorities said. Drennan's car apparently had been either traded or
sold to the men.
"It wasn't fruitful," Sangamon County Sheriff Neil Williamson said of
interviews of the men in Drennan's car. "But they did lead us to some
other places, and we're continuing the investigation."
Evidence technicians searched the car for any clues to Drennan's
death.
Both Springfield and Sangamon County detectives are working on the
case.
Drennan's body was found by two men fishing in a boat along the Lake
Springfield shoreline near Iron Bridge Road.
An autopsy found that Drennan had died of strangulation, said Sangamon
County Coroner Susan Boone. Drennan was dead before she was put into
the lake but wasn't in the water very long before her body was
discovered.
A neighbor of Drennan said Monday that the woman did not socialize
much with neighbors.
"We didn't know her much because she was just gone a lot. She had I
don't know how many boyfriends - this one and then that one," the
neighbor said. "But then she would sit on her porch over there a lot.
She never came over here, though. She just didn't talk to any of the
neighbors."
Drennan had lived with her mother for the past six years, since her
own house burned down, a family member said.
Losing her home to fire was only one of a string of tragedies in
Drennan's life, according to newspaper and court records.
In 1974, Drennan was hit by a car while walking home from Franklin
Middle School. The 12-year-old girl was in a coma for a week with head
injuries and had a broken leg as a result of the accident. The driver
who hit her thought she had been pushed in front of his vehicle, but
the children she was walking with denied it.
In late July 1991, Drennan's 13-year-old son shot himself to death at
his father's business after typing on his father's computer screen a
note that quoted heavy-metal music lyrics. His father said at the time
that he believed such music was partially to blame.
According to reports at the time, the boy, Jason McCormick, had lived
with Drennan's mother, Laura, from the time he was 2 until he was 10.
He had then gone to live with Drennan.
Drennan's father, John, died less than a month later, and in 2000, she
lost her brother Bill, who died at age 50 of Lou Gehrig's disease.
According to court records, Drennan was arrested for driving under the
influence several times and was once arrested for possession of a
controlled substance. She was not employed at the time of her death.
Police are asking anyone with information about Drennan to call the
sheriff's department at 753-6666, Crime Stoppers of Sangamon and
Menard Counties at 788-8427 or (800) 397-2288, or Springfield police
at 788-8325.
Staff writer Jayette Bolinski contributed to this report. Sarah
Antonacci can be reached at 788-1529 or sarah.a...@sj-r.com.
http://www.sj-r.com/sections/news/stories/N04292003,b.asp
--
Anne Warfield
indigoace at goodsol period com
http://www.goodsol.com/cats/
kimtra...@gmail.com
Beaver Fever
> Please send the names of the people in the car to my e mail address. Or a good way to get them.Thank you