Chicago Tribune

A questionable crash, conflicting autopsies and a new stabbing: Police reexamine woman's 2011 death

CHICAGO - When Anthony Prate arrived home and heard his wife talking to another man inside, he suspected the two were having an affair and plotting to kill him.

That's what the suburban eye doctor told police when he called 911 and demanded that both his wife of nearly 20 years and the man be arrested. But when officers arrived at the Algonquin home that day in 2011, Bridget Prate told them it was all a misunderstanding and they left, police records show.

Less than a week later, Bridget Prate, 45, was dead, her body crumpled under the dashboard of a car that crashed while her husband was driving. Anthony Prate told authorities his wife had unbuckled her seat belt to look for her purse and a water bottle just moments before he lost control of the vehicle, crossed the center line, hit an oncoming car and then a tree, according to police records.

But some of the circumstances of the crash raised questions among investigators. Besides the police call days before,

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