UPDATE: Neenah Police have identified the driver and victim of Saturday's crash as 22-year-old Justin Hartjes.
Police say a 1-year-old found in a smoke-filled apartment on Cecil Street a few blocks from the crash was Hartjes's child. The apartment was filled with smoke because of food burning in an oven that was still turned on. Police say the baby was not hurt.
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PREVIOUS REPORTING: One man says Saturday's deadly crash when a driver hit a tree in Neenah was the worst thing he's ever seen.
- See the memorial which sits at the foot of a tree where a man crashed his car around 10:30 p.m.
- Tire skid marks could be seen on the road Monday afternoon
- Hear from the man who says he was one of the first neighbors on the scene
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story.)
Police say after a car crash Saturday, they found a one-year-old alone in an apartment somewhere on this block of Cecil Street. I'm Pari Apostolakos in Neenah and I spoke with neighbors who saw the crash when it happened a little more than half a mile from here.
A memorial sits at the foot of the tree where a man crashed his car and later died Saturday night near the intersection of South Park Avenue and Bayview Road in Neenah.
A wooden cross bears some signatures and initials. Police have not released the man's name or age.
"I was not prepared for what I saw," eye witness Christopher Green said. "It's something I'll never get out of my mind. I'm with this young man, standing there totally helpless."
Green lives across the street from the crash site. He saw the car hit the tree from his kitchen window.
"A car speeding, high rate of speed. He was flying. And he hit that tree head on," Green said. "[I] couldn't believe it. I yelled to my family 'Call 9-1-1,' ran out there, I was out there within seconds. The car was absolutely demolished. It was horrific. I looked inside and I saw the man in the car. It was the worst thing I've ever seen. I hope I never have to see it again."
Tire skid marks on the road could still be seen Monday afternoon. Neighbor Nick Miller says he went outside when the crash happened.
"Saturday night about 10:30 I heard this loud noise and it was so loud it actually shook the house," Miller said. "I could see flames on that part of the tree, really high flames. And those flames went on at least ten minutes before they could get them all extinguished."
Police say the driver was taken out of the car unconscious and later died at a Neenah hospital.
"There's a few things that will haunt me, and one of them is that his Bluetooth speaker was on and he was on the phone with somebody when I got up to the car," Green said. "A woman was trying to [rouse him on the phone] saying 'What's going on? Hello, hello are you there?' That's a tough part of it, memory for me is just knowing that somebody is trying to talk to him."
Investigators say when they got to the crash, they believed there was a one-year-old child in the car. But, police eventually found the baby in the driver's apartment just three blocks from the crash.
It was filled with smoke from an oven being left on with food inside. The baby was unharmed and given to a family member.
Police say although they found the apartment filled with smoke, there was no damage.
