ROCHELLE — Chris Combs estimates that the amount of time he’s spent seeking answers in the eight months since his son’s death in Alabama equates to more than a full-time job.

John Combs of Rochelle passed away at age 24 on Oct. 4 after being struck by a train in Montgomery, Alabama. John was in the south at that time working as a lineman helping with Hurricane Helene recovery efforts in the days beforehand. His passing is shrouded in uncertainty due to missing details and out-of-character behavior he exhibited in the days that led up to it. 

On Sept. 24, John Combs flew to Louisville, Kentucky before driving to Savannah, Georgia to begin storm recovery work, which he did for about a week. On Oct. 2, he was taken to the hospital due to being disoriented, pale and sweaty, Chris Combs said. John called his father and said he couldn’t put his thoughts together and didn’t know what was going on, and he later left the hospital.

John traveled to the Atlanta International Airport on Oct. 3 to fly home. His bag made the trip home, but John did not. Within minutes of getting on the flight, he was removed from the boarding process and airport due to his behavior. The Combs family was told by a witness that John made a speech at the airport.

“We’re told he gave a speech and said, 'You probably all know me by now, my name is John Combs. I'm from Rochelle, Illinois. My whole life has been a lie. I'm no good at anything I do,'” Chris Combs said. 

The next day, John’s location was pinged in Montgomery, Alabama by his brother, Patrick. The Combs family is still without answers on how he got there from Atlanta or why he traveled there. When Chris Combs called John to ask him where he was after realizing he wasn’t on the flight to Chicago, John replied that he was “in the woods.” Chris Combs said his last conversations with his son were “short and odd.”

The Combs family then lost contact with John and filed a missing persons report and continued their search until Tuesday, Oct. 8 when the Montgomery Police Department told them he was hit by a train and had died the previous Friday.

John Combs’ phone, wallet, and backpack were not recovered. With information from phone records and accounts, his brother and father pieced together that his final hours in the afternoon of Oct. 4 included Uber rides and stops in eastern Montgomery at a CVS Pharmacy, Burger King, Starbucks, a gas station and a Sunrise Extended Stay Hotel where he had a stay booked, but never checked in for.

Chris Combs has spent the past eight months seeking information on the days leading up to his son’s death, reaching out to dozens of entities including the Montgomery Police Department, the Atlanta International Airport, the FAA, Southwest Airlines, OSHA, Red Rover Electric (John’s employer), IBEW Local 196 (John’s union), and Congressman Darin LaHood’s office. He’s submitted numerous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. The family has also spoken with media outlets and worked on social media raising awareness of John's story in hopes that someone with information will come forward. 

“Other than what we've uncovered ourselves, we're not any further ahead than we were seven months ago,” Chris Combs said in an interview with the Rochelle News-Leader and Ogle County Life June 4. “I'm running into a lot of people not returning my phone calls. I'm getting people who don't want to listen, maybe because they don't want to be informed.”

Chris Combs did speak with Southwest Airlines and had the story of John being removed from the boarding process due to his behavior confirmed. But after asking what was done with John after that happened, he was told that information would require a subpoena. He also attempted to work with the Atlanta Police Department’s airport precinct to open an investigation in mid October, but saw no progress. He’s been told the airport writes over its video surveillance after 30 days.

January investigative reporting done by Savannah WTOC 11’s Shea Schrader found a witness resident that claimed to see a lone young white lineman working in the area John was in in Savannah. The witness heard a loud noise and saw sparks rain on her car as she drove by, Schrader’s reporting said. Schrader spoke with a Red Rover Electric Foreman that claimed that crews would not have been working alone.

John Combs had no history of mental health or substance abuse issues, his father said.

“I believe he was drugged, suffered a head injury or was electrocuted to start this whole chain of events,” Chris Combs said. “I wasn't so heavily on the electrocution part until I heard what was reported by the Savannah reporter and thought more about it. If he had a head injury, the swelling would have gone down over time and he would've gotten better. He seemed to get worse as time went on. I didn't know what condition he was in. I'm pretty sure that it was electrocution at this point. The hospital called and asked me why he was that way when I had no idea. I told them he was a lineman.”

Chris Combs was told by the U.S. Department of Labor that OSHA has no evidence to support that his son’s death was work-related or that workers were exposed to hazardous working conditions. OSHA concluded that the case could be closed, he said. He also has worked with LaHood’s office to open a congressional investigation into John’s case, but hasn’t seen progress recently.

“I read about all the losses that Georgia Power's system suffered due to the Hurricane,” Chris Combs said. “I’ve read about how many transmission towers, poles, and wire was lost. There isn't a word about my son. I went to the Chicago Stockyards on April 28 for Workers Memorial Day. And they had a ceremony in Rockford too where it was said that nobody in the stateline from a union was killed on the job in 2024. I believe John's name should have been said.”

Chris Combs has spent time in the Atlanta International Airport in the terminal his son was in. He passed out flyers asking anyone that may have seen what happened to John to reach out to him. He’s been in Montgomery and has retraced John’s last movements before his death, which he’s still unable to make sense of. 

John Combs’ father wants to know what sent his son to the hospital in Savannah. He wants to know how he got from the Atlanta Airport to Montgomery, Alabama and why. He wants to know why John seemed to visit all the most dangerous places in Montgomery. He wants to know where his son’s wallet, phone and backpack are.

“I'd like to talk to the last Uber driver that drove John,” Chris Combs said. “What did he say? I don't believe what this has all been made out to be. Does this Uber driver still have his backpack, wallet and phone and is waiting for someone to call? I don't believe the police are doing this or have lifted a finger on this. They've only looked at what happened on the railroad tracks and haven't done anything since. I want to know why he was so short in conversations in his final days. All of it was just out of character.”

Chris Combs said he has been unable to find a lawyer to take his case. He doesn’t plan to give up his search for answers and works daily to ask questions and tell John’s story to everyone he can. John was the type of man to stand up for what he believed in and wouldn’t back down, so his father chooses to carry on searching.

“I lay down to sleep and I'm still thinking about it,” Chris Combs said. “It felt productive in the beginning. Today, it's 11 a.m. and I haven't gotten a single phone call today and my phone should be ringing off the hook because I've left so many messages asking questions about this. It shouldn't be this hard. At this point I'm just waiting for someone I could trust to come along and say, 'Get some sleep. I got this.' I felt OSHA was going to do that for me at one point. It is frustrating. I believe I have more time and resources into this than all the investigating entities together. My son paid union dues and taxes. He has not gotten the representation he paid for. I wish someone would put some time into looking into what happened to him. John is someone that gave all. And people aren't even willing to give a little bit of their time.

“I keep at it. Because I don't want his death to have been for nothing. I want to make sure what happened to him doesn't happen to someone else.”