Man awaiting trial on charges of helping to hide body dies Thursday

CROWN POINT, Ind. -- An Indiana man who died after Chicago police used a stun gun to subdue him was awaiting trial on charges that he helped hide the body of man whose decomposed remains were found buried two years ago in a farm field.\nThe parents of Michael Denvit said Friday the news that Ronald Alan Hasse had died in Chicago makes them wonder if they will ever find out how their son was killed.\nHasse was free on bond, charged with failure to notify authorities and moving a body from a scene in connection with the death of Denvit, 25, who disappeared in June 2001 after leaving a neighborhood bar a few blocks from the family home.\nDenvit's parents were pursuing a civil case against Hasse and Jeffrey Allen Haugh, believing they knew more about his death than they have told authorities.\nHaugh disappeared after making bond, leaving Hasse as the best bet to find out how Denvit died, said Denvit's mother, Doris Denvit.\nBut Hasse, 54, died Thursday after Chicago police used a Taser electric shock gun to subdue him in the hallway of an apartment building. Chicago police said Hasse, of Cedar Lake, Ind., screamed and attacked them when asked to leave the hallway.\nHe died after being transported to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical center.\nDoris Denvit said some of her family is relieved that Hasse is dead, yet she still wants to know what happened to her son in his final hours. The family waited more than two years before Michael Denvit's body was found buried in a farm field.\n"Ultimately, I would have felt better knowing, good or bad," she told the Post-Tribune of Merrillville.\nHasse and Haugh have alleged they buried Denvit's body on Hasse's parents' Cedar Lake farm when Denvit died after the three men went drinking together in June 2001.\nPolice got a tip on July 7, 2003 and dug up the body, which DNA testing later revealed to be that of Denvit.\nDenvit's family believes the suspects gave him narcotics that killed him, but police have not found enough evidence to justify homicide charges against the men.\nAttorney Randy Wyllie said the Denvits hoped the lower burden of proof in a civil case would allow a jury to find Haugh and Hasse culpable in the death.\nHighland attorney Samuel Cappas, who represented Hasse in the criminal charge, plans to get results of Hasse's autopsy and a police investigation into Hasse's death, then explore the possibility of filing a wrongful death lawsuit.\nHasse, who was convicted for dealing in a controlled substance in Illinois and served four years in prison, was not willing to go back to prison, Cappas said.