GRANITE CITY, Ill. — A man has been charged with driving under the influence after he crashed into a Granite City home and killed a woman inside.
Granite City police officers responded to Virginia Ohren’s house on the 1900 block of Joy Avenue Monday night for a report of a crash. Officers arrived to find a vehicle hit a home.
Ohren was inside. Investigators believe she died from injuries caused by the vehicle crashing into the house. She was 73 years old.
The driver, who police identified as 47-year-old Jonathan Beasley, was found at the scene and taken into custody.
He was charged Thursday with two counts of aggravated driving while under the influence causing death, a class 2 felony. He is being held at the Granite City Police Department.
Beasley's address is about one mile away from Ohren's home.
Neighbor Belinda Morgan said the crash happened at 10:40. She knows the time because she looked at the clock when she heard the crash outside and headed down the street, in search of what happened.
“As I walked down, I could see the truck was inside her house. I mean, it was all the way into the living room and the kitchen area," Morgan said. "I saw some of the other neighbors and told them, ‘I don’t have my phone, someone call 911!’ And then I started screaming for the lady that lived here, Virginia. Or Ginny, we called her. I didn’t get any reply, and I saw the gentleman that was in the truck, he was kind of bouncing all over in the seat.”
The vehicle left a large hole where the front door used to be. Debris from the home was scattered on the front lawn and inside the entryway.
Editor's note: The attached video is from July 6, before charges were filed.
