MCHENRY COUNTY, Ill. — An investigation is underway after a boat crash on the Fox River in McHenry left two people dead, according to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).

The medical examiner’s office identified the 62-year-old man as Timothy Mertins of McHenry. He passed from blue force of injuries as a result of the crash.

According to Sgt. Eric Schreiber from the IDNR, law enforcement officials were called to the scene after a boat ran aground near the 600 block of Country Club Drive, just off the Fox River.

IDNR officials say witnesses had reported seeing an open motorboat traveling up and down the Fox River on Saturday. According to the IDNR, the boat hit the shoreline at high rate of speed and traveled 73 feet from the shoreline before coming to rest. Officials say the hull of the boat split into two pieces during the crash.

The IDNR says a 61-year-old woman from McHenry was pronounced dead at the scene and Mertins was airlifted to the hospital and succumbed to his injuries around 8:40 p.m. Saturday.

Connor Lively, a resident who lives nearby, says it was around 5:45 p.m. when he heard a big crash. Lively says he went outside and found the badly damaged boat out of the Fox River, flipped upside down.

“Walked out, saw a big boat in my neighbor’s yard, flipped over, cracked in half,” Lively said.

Lively says he alerted someone to call 911 and began trying to move the boat off of a badly injured man and a woman.

According to Lively, the woman who was trapped beneath the boat did not appear to be breathing and a man was breathing but was unconscious when he attempted to help them

“There’s a ramp of mud going right into the yard. I don’t know how that happened,” Lively said.

IDNR officials say a nearby home suffered minor damage.