Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Sometimes fate has a funny way of showing itself.
It did in a number of ways for the family of Illinois State Trooper Todd Hanneken, when he died in 2021 after his squad car crashed while on patrol near Champaign.
His widow, Shelly says like when a bystander found a card bearing the symbol of Saint Michael, and a prayer asking, “defend us in battle.”
“The person that found that St. Michael’s card outside the squad car that day knew it needed to be saved, for some reason, and it made its way back to me,” said Shelly Hanneken, of Mt. Zion. “I was so angry at that card (because it didn’t do its job). But, was it fate that the man that found that card was my next meaningful relationship in life? That card, in fact, did not have the meaning I thought it should. But, maybe it brought me something different and unexpected on this road of life.”
It also was fate, Hanneken says, when. as a state employee. she would walk by the Illinois State Police (ISP) Memorial Park occasionally after it opened in 2018, and prior to her husband’s death. It was also fate, perhaps, that one of her sons recently became an Illinois State Police intern, calling Mom when he was at the memorial wall.
Hanneken was one of several people to speak at a first-time memorial service at the park. The memorial wall has the names of all 74 troopers who died in the line of duty. Seven of those names have been added since Brendan Kelly became ISP Director — something he thinks about all the time, along with all the fallen.
“They are husbands and wives, and sons and daughters, and fathers and brothers and sisters,” said Kelly. “I have a picture of each of these fallen officers in my office that remind me every day of the brave men and women willing to sacrifice everything for all of us.”
No names have been added to the wall since 2024, something Kelly says he hopes continues through the life of the agency, which already has existed for 100 years.
The memorial wall is the responsibility of the Illinois State Police Heritage Foundation, which made an announcement during the service — an announcement of an expansion of the sorts of the foundation’s mission, which is to be keeper of the ISP history.
“The Heritage Foundation recently purchased the building located just west of the Memorial Park on 6th Street (in Springfield), to serve as a memorial park visitor’s center, a place where the stories of our fallen can be told and heard for decades to come,” said Jarod Ingebrigtsen, Executive Director. “We want to enhance the Memorial Park experience and continue to honor the men and women who are memorialized on this wall, as well as their families.”
Ingebrigtsen says more detailed plans for the visitor’s center will be announced in the months to come.
In the meantime, Hanneken says the memorial should be a reminder, not just of death, but to live your life.
