Iowans are being asked to help watch for a fugitive charged with murder on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River. Thirty-year-old Douglas Paul Maring of Galena has been charged with first degree murder in the death of his 8-year-old son.
Around midnight on Tuesday, authorities were asked to do a welfare check on Maring and his son, because of a comment he made to a friend. When officials tried to pull him over he drove off and crashed into a utility pole.
The older Maring fled on foot and his son was taken to Mercy Hospital in Dubuque where he was pronounced dead. Investigators in the case believe the boy died as a result of what his father did to him, not from injuries sustained in the accident.
Counties in Iowa and Wisconsin have been put on alert. Maring is said to be driving a stolen green 2005 Chevy Malibu with Illinois license plates 8254607.