MT. VERNON, IL — A former Mt. Vernon Township High School student-athlete was killed in a fatal traffic crash Thursday afternoon. Eli Badger was traveling on a motorcycle along highway 142 near Continental Tire around 2:49pm when his bike and a semi-truck collided.

Jeff Fritchnitch remembers how Eli welcomed him into the community while Badger was a senior and Fritchnitch was taking over in his first year as Superintendent at MVTHS.

Illinois State Police Traffic Crash Reconstruction is still in the process of gathering the details of this ongoing investigation.

According to a Facebook post on the Mt. Vernon Rams Football Gridiron Club page; one of Eli’s last acts was taking the personal belongings of the niece to a manger on that page that had been killed in an ATV accident earlier this week. Badger was quoted as saying he wanted to bring them by to help comfort the family in their time of loss.