How could a lightweight bathroom door knock a little girl out so completely that she appeared dead? . The Will County sheriff seems content to blame former Will County state's attorney Jeff Tomczak for any missteps. "I told my mom that they should not answer any questions. "Your family doesn't love you," he shouted. What did he want to do on his first night out, he was asked. He left Tyler and Riley with Melissa's mother, Sandy Rossi. Kevins then-wife, Melissa, was away in Chicago during that weekend, and on June 5, Kevin decided to attend a concert in Chicago. Trending. The girl appeared "lifeless," and Kevin thought she was dead. I had never been treated like that before. (A spokesman said Glasgow wouldn't comment for this story because of the pending litigation.). Hayes made Kevin watch as he filled out an arrest sheet for first-degree murder. Mark M. Strothmann, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Wilmington, quoting Mark 10:14. TueWedThuFriSat. He shakes his head one final time. Best of 2022 Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. The relationship evolved quickly and, just after Kevin started college at Illinois State University, Melissa, then 18, became pregnant with Tyler. Published by Chicago Sun-Times on Mar. Within moments, Swearengen appeared and led her into an adjoining room. What's more, Tomczak's father, Donald, second-in-command at the City of Chicago's water department, had just been named in a federal indictment for corruption. Kevin and Melissa have visited it many times, as they have Riley's grave in Wilmington's Oakwood Cemetery. Kevin's knees buckled. That Saturday night, she stayed at a campsite with friends in Skokie. I knew it wasn't true. Among those in attendance, unobtrusive but noticeable, were two men holding video cameras. The collection of friends, family, reporters, and onlookers watched as Kevin Fox, red-eyed and shell-shocked, shuffled into the courtroom. The Foxes owned a dark blue Ford Escape. Kevin Fox and his family paid little attention to the politics of the race. God Bless and stay safe. Judge James Carroll Fox, 90, of Wilmington, NC, passed away March 23 rd at home surrounded by his loving wife and family. In less than an hour, it seemed the whole town had turned out. Almost a year later, Fox was freed from the Will County Jail, and his murder. She wore a flamingo decorated T-shirt, dirtied now by mud and silt. A social media outcry has occurred in the wake of the death of Tibetan farmer and social media influencer Lhamo, who was attacked by her ex-husband during a live stream and died of . Melissa says that Swearengen told her about the videotape of the car and about Tyler's statement and then laid out an "accident" scenario for the death of Riley. Police would reveal nothing. He quit school and the two moved in together. Most important, Kevin says, he trusted the detectives' motives. The results did not match, and hence after eight months of being imprisoned, Kevin was finally let go. The Fox family wanted Kevin's immediate release. By most accounts, Kevin Dale Fox was a devoutly religious man and a loving father. Corke is a Harvard University Kennedy School of Government graduate and was recognized as a Littauer Fellow for his devotion to public service, leadership, and academic achievement. While his wife was in Chicago, Kevin, then 27, and the kids spent Saturday afternoon making posters in anticipation of celebrating Melissa's walk at the finish line, where they planned to meet her the next morning. "No." BBB File Opened: 12/28/2015. The weekend of June 5 and 6, 2004, Melissa Fox left Wilmington to participate in a breast cancer walk in Chicago. Fox Born: July 26, 1947 in Joliet, IL Died: April 8, 2021 in New Lenox, IL Age 73 of Wilmington, formerly of Joliet, passed away Thursday, April 8, 2021 at Silver Cross. Glasgow would later say he was "shocked" at the results. But the case that had shattered the Wilmington community was far from over. He would eventually become such a fixture that the family would refer to him simply as "Scott.". she thought. ", The couple, however, have moved out of Wilmington. The only reason I go back now is to visit Riley's stone.". 77/48F. , Inc. holds real estate brokerage licenses in multiple provinces. She was wearing the same "princess dress" she had picked out and worn as a flower girl in Chad and Stacy's wedding. Riley Fox story: '20/20' unveils new details in Wilmington girl's death Braidwood mayor charged with DUI after 3-car crash Victim ID'd in deadly crash on I-55 near Wilmington The state's attorney, a heavyset man named Jeffery Tomczak, swept into the room, shaking hands and nodding toward a line of police officers who stood stone-faced and imposing near a cadre of assistant prosecutors arrayed around the prosecution table. His lawyer, Kathleen Zellner, says that when she asked to see the handwritten notes from which the summary was drawn, Will County authorities told her that they were gone. "I felt as if I had aged five years since Kevin's arrest," he says. When the FBI began its investigation in 2009, it was two years after a jury awarded Fox and his then-wife, Melissa Fox, $15.5 million for the Will County Sheriff's Office investigators' false. "They made me sit in a room for 45 minutes," Melissa says, still furious at the memory. The claim triggered an investigation from a representative of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. Are you kidding me?" Absolutely not, Kaupas said. Read More Business Details. In addition, the family has upped its reward to $100,000 for information leading to the arrest of Riley's killer. Fewer than 20 new single family homes were built last year in the villages of Coal City and Diamond. Kenneth J. "I'm asking leave to file same." A steady drizzle fell, while inside, mourners wept to a slide-show collage set to the songs "My Girl" and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." The lab had said the results would arrive around 6 p.m. Disappearance [ edit] Rather than providing a running narrative, she says, Kevin often simply answered "yes" or "no" to the detectives' questions. He has also, on matters unrelated to the case, been in error in at least 13 instances, according to the Fox suit. The timing of the charges also seemed curious, coming just six days before a tight election for state's attorney between Tomczak, the incumbent, and a bitter rival, James Glasgow. All. She quickly became known around town as the precocious little girl who loved Dora the Explorer, the kind of child who insisted on picking out her own flower girl dress-only after plis and curtsies in front of a mirror. Now he was free. A videotape captured the session, conducted by a forensic interviewer named Mary Jane Pluth, who works for the Will County Children's Advocacy Center. Meanwhile, the family launched a public-relations counteroffensive against the barrage of media coverage suggesting Kevin's guilt. "But I lost so much there. Riley Fox was sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, and drowned in a creek in Wilmington, Illinois. . Three-year-old Riley Fox of Wilmington, Illinois, was kidnapped from her home early in the morning on June 6, 2004, as her brother and father slept nearby. The original detectives on the murder have been reassigned, the former state's attorney is now in private practice, and the little town where it occurred has suffered a loss of innocence, as well as wounds to its pride that may take years to heal. "So when you send something to the lab, you monitor it," the Tribune quoted Glasgow as saying. Both stations share studios on Shipyard Boulevard in Wilmington, while WSFX-TV's . and we stand behind them.". 1983 and Illinois law, claiming that Will County detectives Edward Hayes, Michael Guilfoyle, Scott Swearengen, Brad Wachtl, John Ruettiger (who died before the trial), and several other parties who have since settled or been . The defendants have sought to have the claim dismissed, arguing among other things that prosecutors are immune from such claims. Melissa was seen getting a fancy haircut at the mall. "He is an amazing dad, I tell you what," says his mother, Dawn. Dawn's current home is located at Wilmington, IL. . High 24F. But several days later, while reviewing the state crime lab's report, Zellner puzzled over the "inconclusive" finding for the presence of male saliva. The Fox family has also pushed for the passage of "Riley's Law," a measure that would expedite DNA testing after child murders. Three miles away, a Wilmington police cruiser returned to Kevin and Melissa's house. Three years later, in 2000, with Kevin having found work as a union painter and Melissa as a waitress, the two were married. Kevin Corke is an American journalist born on 6 February. They describe a codified series of emotional and intellectual manipulations designed to break down even the strongest of personalities. At one point, he asks for his "mommy and daddy." But we feel closer to her when we go there. If you pass it up, you will spend your life in prison. Months. "I can make a deal for him. But because so many people had called with similar observations about the Foxes' spending habits, the station decided it couldn't ignore the rumors.). The Fox family had called Wilmington home for generations. Maryland Man Arrested After Crashing Stolen Vehicle. After being photographed and fingerprinted, Kevin arrived at the Will County Adult Detention Center less than a mile from the sheriff's office, spent and sick with anxiety. Five months later, a gallery of stunned observers packed the hearing at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. He duct-taped his daughter's mouth and bound her wrists together with tape. She phoned a forensic scientist, who explained what that meant: the state crime lab simply didn't have the sophisticated capabilities that would be needed to test properly for the substance. Later that same afternoon, detective Michael Guilfoyle took Tyler to the Fox family's home. "We didn't want to turn it into another JonBenet Ramsey case. They love to see innocent children tortured and defiled for their indigent minds because it elevates an idiot. Also unbeknownst to Kevin and Melissa, the police were pursuing another lead that might point toward Kevin. Gone were any underwear and capri pants. Immediately, we both started crying. It was now after six in the morning. Tall and striking, with dark brown shoulder-length hair, Zellner has made a name for herself by winning wrongful conviction cases. Before that, she was a television news reporter for ABC and FOX affiliates in North Carolina and Illinois. Just before he was booked and taken to jail, Kevin says, the last thing he heard was the sound of the detectives in the hallway, laughing and congratulating themselves. Dimitre Dimitrov, 64, allegedly killed his wife, MaryAnn Dimitrov, and himself at the Holly Tree Racquet Club in Wilmington last Tuesday evening. When you see your daughter dead, with dirt and mud on her face . The Tribune reported last year that while the FBI had paid $10,000 to Trisha Kiefer, Eby's former girlfriend, for her help in solving one of the Chicago region's most notorious crimes, the Fox . I don't even know how to describe it. 28, 2008. Set just off a playground around the corner from the house where she disappeared, the garden includes a statue of a young girl with butterflies alighting on her raised hands. ", Kevin alerted his parents and Chad, who was immediately wary. Instead, she marched up the marble stairs and past the groom. How solid was the evidence? Chad recalls the moment vividly: "Kevin looked at me and said, I didn't do this. How do they sleep at night? Her father, an avid fisherman, had learned he had cancer, and he wanted to spend what time he had left in a peaceful place along a river, she says. As for the murder of Riley, "You did it," the lawsuit quotes Williams as saying. The questions quickly shift to what Kevin did or didn't do that night. As Kevin and countless others in the sanctuary laughed with delight, he returned her to her mother, who shook her head with resignation and took the girl to the pew. He yelled, Your fucking husband killed your fucking daughter and he doesn't love you or her. Five months after three-year-old Riley Fox of Wilmington was brutally murdered, her father, Kevin, confessed following a long night with Will County detectives. Next. Some expressed bitter feelings of betrayal to reporters. He drove to a bridge over Forsythe Creek and then carried the girl down a muddy bank, slipping on the way down. The tactics that produced Kevin Fox's statement, he says, are a case study in how to get someone to railroad himself. Kevin Fox was cleared of the charges when a DNA test excluded him from the assault and killing. I looked at him square in the eyes the whole time, and I knew my brother was not lying to me. Many of them questioned the confession. With bond set at $25 million, the family decided, on Zellner's advice, not to try to get Kevin out, but to put their money toward clearing his name. "I finally kicked the door really hard," she says. Finally they were brought out into a waiting room, where Curt, Dawn, Chad, and Stacy had already gathered. WILMINGTON, IL The authorities at the Wilmington Police Department have obtained a bench warrant to arrest 45-year-old Wilmington resident Scott McCaughn on two felony . Meanwhile, several statements by Tomczak, which later proved unfounded, cast another shadow over Kevin. It put stress on the couple, and soon, they separated with Melissa moving out with both children. "You don't have much time," Hayes warned. (Today, Fox's legal team says that the results were at best unreliable.) The aftershocks of his arrest, however, reverberate in the form of a lawsuit he and his wife have brought against Will County authorities. "If someone was abusing my child, I would have known about it. Buoyed over the finding, Zellner secured a court order to have the material tested by a private lab-Bode Technology Group in Virginia. Also added were the polygraph examiner, Richard C. Williams, Pluth, Kaupas, and a jail guard. "Everything that [detectives] had was still pointing to this guy," says Will County Sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry. It is heartbreaking to see such a devoted and doting father go through the seemingly never-ending and painful ordeal of losing his daughter and his entire family. but we firmly believe, and the sheriff firmly believes, that [the detectives] did a good job . Christmas passed with Kevin still in jail, then New Year's, and Kevin's 28th birthday on January 4th. . Little did he know that a few hours later, he would be waking up to the worst nightmare of his life and that his beloved daughter would be taken away from him forever. Thus, he contacted the police on the non-emergency phone line (an action that would later raise suspicion against him). "If you saw one, generally the other was right behind," Curt Fox says. In a case that saw numerous twists and even a false arrest, justice was finally delivered when the perpetrator was caught and made to pay for his crimes. (A water usage report from that night suggests that the washing machine did not run.) "The only way to guarantee that Kevin Fox would not be executed was to find DNA that excluded him with 100-percent certainty," she says. "Throughout my life, I've always followed in your footsteps," Kevin said. And that she did not have. WILMINGTON, Ill. -- Five years had passed since the 2004 murder of 3-year-old Riley Fox when FBI Special Agent Lori Warren began working on what she called "the most important case of my. "There are some red flags that are making us look at Kevin," Melissa recalls the detective saying. He struggles to catch his breath between sobs. "But Scott said not to worry, that they just needed to ask us a few questions before they told us whatever they wanted to tell us.". I said, What are you talking about?'" June 6, 2004: Kevin Fox of Wilmington reports his 3-year-old daughter, Riley, missing about 8 a.m. Hikers find her body about 3:30 p.m. in nearby creek after massive search. Meanwhile, the members of Kevin's family hold firm to their unwavering belief in the man who they say became, like his murdered daughter, a victim. But now that I have a wonderful wife, and the two most beautiful children in the world, you get to finally follow me and make a family. Chad and Zellner viewed the change in office with a wary eye. "I don't think I've ever seen a more beautiful sight," he says. In the weeks that followed, Melissa and Kevin found the investigators to be supportive, even friendly. Get your help from the State's Attorney so you can go home to your family. A few hours later, at a reception at the Park Hyatt, Kevin drew on the moment as he stood to toast his brother, Chad, and Chad's new wife, Stacy. "He changed more diapers and fed and bathed the kids way more than the average father.". Find out where to go, what to eat, where to live, and more. People wonder: who would do it? The family sued the state and won $15 million, which later was reduced to $8.5 million. Around 2:15, he went to the bathroom and swung the door open quickly, striking Riley and knocking her down. Kankakee, IL (60901) Today. Despite the elimination of all charges against Kevin, some still wonder how a child could be abducted from under a father's nose. They were vacationing in the Ozarks. But after briefly talking to one lawyer, Kevin dismissed the idea. You're offered a less serious offense and the chance to go home to your family and clear things up later in court. Meanwhile, Tomczak and Glasgow were said to be running neck and neck in the state's attorney's race. From his Joliet offices, Will County State's Attorney Jeffery Tomczak kept close tabs on the investigation's progress. "When I reached out to Kevin and said, I believe you,' I think they got pissed." That night, Kevin drove to Chicago, too, to attend a concert with a friend and one of Melissa's brothers. As if in anticipation of unavoidable criticism, Tomczak had earlier stopped at the defense table where Kevin Fox's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, was seated. Local 630-955-1212 | Toll . "You look at a stone with your daughter's picture, knowing that her body is in the dirt rather than in your arms. For hours, Kevin and Melissa shook hands and gave hugs, receiving mourners until they could barely stand. They agreed to tell their story to Chicago, they say, in hopes of calling attention to the injustices they believe they have suffered and to breathe new life into an investigation that, even authorities admit, has not yielded any promising leads for months. ", Today, in recalling this part of the interrogation, Kevin weeps. Why was no duct tape found? With the case against Kevin collapsing, the new Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow held an immediate court hearing. To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store. she quotes him as saying. "It wasn't like there was any time to cook up a story," she says. He immediately noticed that the front door and screen were ajar. While Chad talked about leaving for the big city, Kevin couldn't imagine living anywhere else. "I feel sad for the whole community that we were betrayed." ", By now, Melissa's brother had arrived at the jail, as had Kevin's father. "We really tried to stay the course," he told reporters. Not fair! 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