Man killed in crash suspected in girlfriend’s beating death
He drove her car at high speeds through tolls, then crashed into a barrier
He drove north to Wisconsin, blowing past tolls, until the car’s front tire fell off and he crashed in a fiery wreck.
The driver, 30-year-old Elmer Aguilar, was dead.
Eighty miles away, so was the car’s owner, Destiny Ann Tolodxi.
This week, authorities said they believe Aguilar killed Tolodxi, his ex-girlfriend, in Rockford, Illinois, on April 20 before fleeing.
“It’s an act of domestic violence,” Winnebago County Deputy Chief Mike Schultz said Thursday.
Although police had no prior record of domestic dispute calls involving the couple, investigators learned through text and Facebook messages Aguilar had been stalking Tolodxi, Schultz said during a news conference that was livestreamed by WITITV (Channel 6).
Tolodxi had broken up with Aguilar on April 18 when she was giving him a ride home from school, he said.
Two days later, her neighbor reported seeing Aguilar’s car near her house in Rockford.
By 7:42 a.m. that day, Tolodxi’s Pontiac G6 sped through tolls on I-90, I-294 and I-94.
Cameras captured the driver’s photo. It was Aguilar.
When the car lost its front wheel, he crashed into a construction barrier and an excavation machine in the Town of Raymond in Racine County about 9:20 a.m. and died from his injuries.
Later that day, about 3:45 p.m., Tolodxi’s body was discovered in the house by her sister.
She had died from blunt force trauma to the head and face, including a skull fracture and broken nose.
Aguilar had stolen her car.
“It’s our belief that he was panicked and didn’t have anywhere to go, nowhere to run and was just driving,” Schultz said.
Aguilar, a native of El Salvador, had two prior drunken-driving arrests and was in the U.S. illegally, sheriff ’s officials said.
Tolodxi loved to dance and spend time outdoors fishing and riding dirt bikes, according to her obituary.
She worked at Mercyhealth in Rockford and was studying to become a registered nurse.
A relative described her as a fun, loving and carefree on an online fundraising page.
“She brought light to the darkest of days, a smile to everyone’s face, and loved life to its fullest,” the post read.