Friends and Family Mourn Loss of Student Killed by Train

Officials have not identified the name of the pedestrian Friday, but friends who set up a Facebook page in his memory say he was junior Jonathan Kaden.

Friends and fellow students are filling a Facebook page with comments remembering the 17-year-old Kaden. The page, which openly states Kaden was hit by a train Friday, has more than 1,700 likes since it was created on Friday. Kaden would have been a junior at Naperville Central this year.

A student affiliated with the Ball State University Summer Journalism Workshops Crossroads internship program contacted Naperville Patch Saturday morning seeking information about the accident. The student said he heard that one of the summer program’s participants had been involved in Friday's fatal train accident.

Metra confirmed Friday that a pedestrian was hit and killed at about 4:15 p.m. about a quarter mile east of the Naperville train station. An accident investigation is ongoing.

Kaden's will take place Aug. 3 at 4 p.m. in North Central College's Pfeiffer Hall.

Kaden was a staff writer on The Central Times at Naperville Central High School. He attended a journalism workshop at Ball State last week. The students who participated in the Crossroads summer program and who knew Kaden worked Saturday to write a remembrance. The story can be found on the Ball State Crossroads website.

Kaden worked at Dairy Queen and his love of Dilly Bars even made it into his Facebook page, as he added it in to his name. On his Central Times biography he said he was obsessed with the Dilly Bar because it was “the perfect consumable form of culinary art.”

Friends remembered him online for being compassionate, dedicated and someone who could make an entire room burst into laughter.

“No one I know has ever said anything bad about him. He will forever be missed,” it says in the biography on the Facebook memorial page.

Along with being on the staff at The Central Times, Kaden was a member of the boy’s gymnastics team. He participated in community theater, performing in past productions at the Magical Starlight Theatre.

Metra officials had no information Saturday regarding the accident or its cause and deferred to the DuPage County Sheriff and the Naperville Police Department. A call to the DuPage County Sheriff was not returned Saturday. The Naperville Police said Friday they did not have any information or a news release to issue. And, a call to a Naperville fire official Friday was not returned.