Here's why Kewanee Police aren't releasing information on Sunday death

Kewanee Police have received a preliminary autopsy report from the Henry Co. Coroner's office but are still not releasing details of a death investigation that started Sunday.

Police Chief Nicholas Welgat indicated Thursday that despite rampant rumors in town about the man's identity and speculation that foul play was involved, as well as public urging on social media to release more information, the department won't share details until the investigation has concluded.

Police on Monday sent out a short statement that said detectives were investigating the death of a 34-year-old male in the 900 block of North Main Street. The KPD's weekly police blotter indicated they were called about 1 a.m. Sunday. The statement said the name of the deceased was being withheld following an autopsy report, which has been conducted but was not yet finalized as of Thursday.

Welgat said that in any investigation, the department has to be laser-focused on getting the facts straight right from the start.

"We may have what we believe happened, but we want to track down every theory," Welgat said. "An investigation is very comprehensive. We like to gather our information so when we do make a (public) comment, it's backed up by the facts in the case."

Deputy Chief Stephen Kijanowski said the department realizes that people want to know more about Sunday's incident, but declined to say whether police believe a crime was committed. In addition to awaiting the final autopsy results, he said evidence in the incident is still being processed by the state's crime lab.

But he assured Kewanee residents that they are not in danger and that the department would've long before provided more information if they were.

"People have come up personally and talked to me about it, but if there was a threat to the public we'd put that out right away," he said.

Kijanowski said that outside of a public threat, the police have a duty to focus on their investigation and that providing more details on an active case could put the case in jeopardy.

On the current death investigation specifically, he said "we want to have a few things cleared up. We have theories, but if any of that (social media speculation) was true, we'd have that information out right away."

This article originally appeared on Star Courier: Here's why Kewanee police aren't releasing information on Sunday death