Family members said they believe Dustin’s murderer was a friend of his. Police, however, have not formally identified any suspects in the case.<\/p>\n
Cheryl Potts, Dustin’s mother, said police contact her about once every two weeks, but they don’t say much – just that they’re working on the case.<\/p>\n
So Dustin’s family, friends, fiancee and 10-year-old son are reaching out to attract attention to his case.<\/p>\n
“We want to get the word out there,” Potts said. “People need to talk. We need to get some justice for my son.”<\/p>\n
The crowd gathered near the water’s edge for prayer and encouraging words.<\/p>\n
“One day we’ll get justice for Dustin, whether it’s in this lifetime or another one,” she said.<\/p>\n
The Englebrecht family has been part of Pekin for many years, said Dustin’s uncle, Donnie Englebrecht.<\/p>\n
“We’ve done a lot for this town,” he said. “We’ve helped a lot of people. But we get no justice. . . . When the system fails, the people don’t understand. They start to feel anger and disbelief.”<\/p>\n
But besides the frustration with law enforcement, the vigil also allowed friends and family to share their memories. Dustin’s sense of humor is one thing many said they miss.<\/p>\n
“He liked to joke around and play tricks,” said his cousin, Tawny Fuller of Pekin. “He’d put make-up on you while you sleep, funny stuff like that.”<\/p>\n
Josh Hallihan of Pekin said he met Dustin detasseling corn at age 13, and they were instant best friends.<\/p>\n
“He was the best guy I ever knew,” he said. “His humor was crazy, off the wall.”<\/p>\n
Rita Shuck of Pekin said Dustin had a giving nature, often helping her load her husband’s wheelchair in and out of her car.<\/p>\n
“I could call him up anytime and ask him to come over,” she said. “He didn’t just have friends. Everyone was his best friend.”<\/p>\n
Shuck said some of Dustin’s friends have designed a race car to enter into a Toyota Racing sponsorship contest. If chosen, the car, featuring large wraparound photos of Dustin, would be driven at a NASCAR racing event.<\/p>\n
“If we get it there, it’s national,” Shuck said. “People would understand we want justice. . . . We don’t need another murder in Pekin for them to solve his case.”<\/p>\n
To vote for Dustin’s car, visit www.sponsafier.com<\/a> and search for “Dustin Ride.”<\/p>\n Lauren Rees can be reached at 686-3251 or lrees@pjstar.com.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n Read the original article from Journal Star<\/a>.<\/p>\n Distributed via Chicago Press Release Services<\/a><\/p>\n Against a twilight sky, about 100 people gathered Sunday night to light candles in memory of Dustin Englebrecht. Their message? “Justice for Dustin!” crowd members shouted while huddled around the Mineral Springs Park Lagoon in Pekin. The 27-year-old Mason City man disappeared Aug. 28 -six months ago Sunday – and was found about a week […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-374111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/img><\/a>
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