It's on the other side of the state. It'd be like saying that San Francisco is in the L.A. area.
it seems that this crime was unpreventable, ...
in the Illinois area.
It'd be like saying that San Francisco is in the L.A. area.
SF effectively is in the LA area, because the description was actually referencing political areas as well as geographic areas.
But you knew that.
Further, SF and LA are both in the California area both politically and geographically.