Tomassino Offer, a freshman at Wheaton College, died Sunday morning in a train accident after leaving church with a friend. He was 18 and had gone to Wheaton to study business and play college baseball.
That loss landed in the middle of a program and a family that had already built memories around him. On Monday evening, Pontiac Notre Dame Prep head coach Jason Gendreau wrote that the school community was deeply saddened by the sudden and tragic loss of Offer, and he said on Facebook that heaven had gained the ultimate angel. Henry Ewles later wrote on X that Offer was one of the most genuine and caring people he had ever met.
The crash happened at about 10:20 a.m. CDT when Offer was hit by an eastbound Union Pacific freight train. A spokesperson for Metra told Chicago’s ABC-7 that he tried to cross the tracks after one train passed, but another train was approaching from the opposite direction. That detail matters because it shows how quickly a routine crossing can turn fatal even when the first train has already cleared the way.
Offer’s death reached beyond Wheaton College and into a high school program that had leaned on him in every phase of his development. As a senior at Notre Dame Prep, he appeared in every game for the baseball team, hit.388 in 126 plate appearances, scored 26 runs, drove in 15, stole 13 bases and worked two wins in four pitching appearances over 10 innings. As a junior, he played in 35 games, collected 26 hits and allowed one earned run in 10 1/3 innings on the mound. He was also a soccer standout who started in goal during Notre Dame Prep’s first state title season and earned first-team all-state honors as a senior.
There is still no public answer for why Offer was on the tracks at that moment after leaving church, and the Northern Illinois Transit Authority is still investigating. What is already clear is how wide the response has been: a remembrance was held at Wheaton College on Sunday, another was held Monday at Wheaton’s St. Michael Catholic Church, and a prayer vigil was scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 13 at 7 p.m. at Saint Lawrence Catholic Church in Utica. For the people who knew him best, the next gathering is no longer about explaining the accident. It is about carrying a name that now sits at the center of grief.
