Missing Milwaukee Teacher Confirmed Burned In Illinois Car Fire

MILWAUKEE, WI -- The family of a missing Milwaukee teacher received the news they hoped would never come. On Thursday, Feb. 5, investigators in Lake County, Illinois confirmed that the body found in her badly-burned car over the weekend was that of Kathleen Ryan.

On Feb. 5 the Lake County Coroner’s Office conducted an autopsy on the remains recovered from the burned vehicle. Lake County Coroner Doctor Howard Cooper said, “Through dental records we positively identified the body as Kathleen Ryan, 56, of the 2300 block of East Holt Avenue, Milwaukee."

Cooper said he's awaiting additional testing before releasing the preliminary cause of Kathleen’s death. "I have been in close communication with the Ryan family and extend my deepest condolences to them,” he said.

Ryan's family said she was last seen on Saturday, Feb. 2 in St. Francis just before she was on her way to Carmel Catholic Preparatory School in Mundelein to meet her son Zack. She never showed up.

Later that night, at just before 10 p.m. Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies were dispatched to an address along Highway 41 in the Town of Warren for a report of a vehicle on fire. According to sheriff's officials, deputies found the car near I-41 and Stearns School Road, about 10 miles northeast of Carmel Catholic High School. After an inspection of the vehicle, investigators said it belonged to Ryan.

After the fire was extinguished, firefighters and sheriff’s deputies saw a badly-burned body inside the vehicle. Notification was made to the Lake County Coroner’s Office and coroner’s staff responded to the scene.

Ryan was a business teacher at St. Augustine Preparatory Academy, located on Milwaukee's South Side. The superintendent, in a statement earlier this week, said "Kathleen Ryan is a valued, respected and beloved educator and friend. We are praying for her safe return." She previously taught at Stillwater Area High School in Minnesota.

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