Chicago, IL: (Mar-21-08) The family of 3-year-old Riley Fox brought a wrongful death lawsuit against the Will County Sheriff's Department, after the death of the girl in 2004. Powered by WordPress.com VIP. 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. Menu. "You're overcome by grief. "Rape kits"-samples of DNA collected from Riley's body-were sent to the Illinois State Police crime lab for analysis. "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. Kevin Fox in Illinois We found 15 records for Kevin Fox in undefined. "They made me sit in a room for 45 minutes," Melissa says, still furious at the memory. Their lenses, the family later learned, were trained not on the ceremony, or the casket, but on the mourners, including Kevin Fox. 66F. View Kevin Fox results in Arkansas (AR) including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. The resident's face was blocked out, but the message clear: the anonymous source clearly spoke for most everyone in Wilmington, and most everyone in Wilmington believed Kevin Fox was guilty of murdering his daughter. The aftershocks of his arrest, however, reverberate in the form of a lawsuit he and his wife have brought against Will County authorities. He has also, on matters unrelated to the case, been in error in at least 13 instances, according to the Fox suit. "We'd ask, but they'd always say something like We can't really discuss it.'" Absolutely not, Kaupas said. They love to see innocent children tortured and defiled for their indigent minds because it elevates an idiot. Delaware State Police have arrested 26-year-old Damiean Turner of East New Market, Maryland, for firearm and traffic-related offenses. "He changed more diapers and fed and bathed the kids way more than the average father.". . Did he know his car had been spotted passing the Mobil station at four in the morning? Finally they were brought out into a waiting room, where Curt, Dawn, Chad, and Stacy had already gathered. Three years later, in 2000, with Kevin having found work as a union painter and Melissa as a waitress, the two were married. He laid Riley on the couch and placed his son, Tyler, in the chair in the living area before going to his room to watch TV. We hope he finds some comfort soon and would like to wish him all the happiness for the coming days. By now, hundreds of townsfolk were clawing through brush and woods. Kevin, 20, was overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events, and the two broke up for a short period. None was available. The boy weeps. Three miles away, a Wilmington police cruiser returned to Kevin and Melissa's house. The interrogation and arrest of Fox, the suit alleges, was part of a last-ditch effort by Tomczak to win re-election. Today, Chad fumes that his brother was not told earlier. At one point an assistant interrupted the presentation by bursting into the courtroom and thrusting a document into Tomczak's hand. 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. The machine clicked on at a couple of minutes before the hour. deaddeath.com Kevin Fox Wilmington IL Obituary - Death | Kevin Fox Has Died - Passed Away Kevin Fox Death - Obituary - Funeral - Passed Away : Deaddeath learnt on May 07, 2021, that in Kevin Fox was pronounced dead, leaving friends and family in total devastations. Dawn's current home is located at Wilmington, IL. "For some reason," she says, "I had this terrible feeling that I was never going to see her again.". Later, Scott Denton, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy on Riley, signed an affidavit swearing that he had never talked to Tomczak and did not share his opinion about Riley's being alive when she was placed in the water. To the people who knew Kevin Fox, the hearing seemed unreal. A search for the young girl began. On 27 October 2004, investigators from the Will County, Illinois Sheriff's Office coerced a false confession from Kevin Fox to the sexual molestation and murder of his four-year-old daughter following a polygraph "test" administered by polygrapher Richard Williams. You're offered a less serious offense and the chance to go home to your family and clear things up later in court. We thought, This is the night. Riley Fox was sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, and drowned in a creek in Wilmington, Illinois. Subscribe to one or more of our free e-mail newsletters to get instant updates on local news, events, and opportunities in Chicago. She initially hired Ernie Rizzo, the big, blustery, and controversial private eye. 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 . What neither Zellner nor Glasgow apparently realized was that the FBI had not tested Riley's DNA. "We need you to come to the police station," an officer told them. Kevin Fox was initially charged with his daughter's June 2004 murder. The entire time, detective Edward Hayes, who would become the lead detective on the case, watches from the other side of a one-way mirror. But early Sunday morning, Tyler woke up Kevin to tell him that Riley was missing. To those who didn't know Kevin Fox, the hearing seemed to offer a shocking solution to a terrible crime . 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. Next. "It's all right to say you did it." Zellner also began looking into an element that seemed to have been forgotten: the DNA evidence taken from Riley. Find out where to go, what to eat, where to live, and more. A preliminary report indicated no signs of foreign DNA-with one possible exception: a test for saliva in her vagina came back "inconclusive.". . He then went home, cried for a while, and went to sleep. The answer is: far too many people. Glasgow would later say he was "shocked" at the results. As Glasgow spoke, Kevin began to weep. 1:07. A videotape captured the session, conducted by a forensic interviewer named Mary Jane Pluth, who works for the Will County Children's Advocacy Center. $271,900. 79/63F. For all his initial trepidation, Kevin took to fatherhood in a way that surprised even his closest family. And he realized he needed to take responsibility for his child. But when she looked for confirmation from two detectives who stood in the room-including Todd Lyons, a burly, bald Wilmington investigator to whom Kevin had delivered papers when he was a boy-they "just stared at us," she says. "So when you send something to the lab, you monitor it," the Tribune quoted Glasgow as saying. The Fox family had called Wilmington home for generations. "Everything that [detectives] had was still pointing to this guy," says Will County Sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry. "She is in pain and needs closure. But the parents believed they had cooperated in every way possible, including providing DNA samples, consenting to searches, and answering questions. Why would Tyler say Kevin had walked out during the night with Riley? The girl was kidnapped from. "Everything's going to be OK," she told him. "We didn't want to turn it into another JonBenet Ramsey case. Then they drove to the Will County courthouse, where Kevin had first been charged with murdering his daughter. Parenting takes a level of intelligence and refuse to pass laws that require logical IQ before they become a parent. According to the summary, Kevin thought of driving to his mother-in-law's house, or perhaps taking Riley to the hospital. All told, Kevin was interrogated that night for more than 14 hours; only 20 minutes were taped. Hope they find some peace. Tomczak was bulky with thinning hair. ", The town of Wilmington, struggling to heal, tends a small garden that honors Riley's memory. Promising a suspect leniency to confess is forbidden under Illinois law, and the detectives have denied in court pleadings that they did so. he asks. He began having nightmares in which he would see Kevin strapped to a gurney, about to receive a lethal injection. "We felt we could never get an answer on the progress of the case," Kevin says. (Tomczak later accused Kevin of lying during his confession-concocting the story of the bathroom door to hide his guilt in molesting Riley.) Outside the courtroom, more than 100 friends and family greeted them. Yet, despite the overwhelming implication of guilt produced by the hearing, a number of troubling questions lurked within the prosecutor's case. After an hour, the boy draws into a fetal position. A steady drizzle fell, while inside, mourners wept to a slide-show collage set to the songs "My Girl" and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." Pluth starts off with basic questions about where Tyler lives and what kind of sports he likes. The Will County sheriff seems content to blame former Will County state's attorney Jeff Tomczak for any missteps. If he slipped in the mud, why were his clothes not muddy? The family sued the state and won $15 million, which later was reduced to $8.5 million. She screamed when she realized what she had found. For Chad, the fight to clear his kid brother's name became a crusade. The elder woman had just made her way to the edge of the creek when she noticed something that looked to her like a plastic bag. Tomczak added other details: The girl had been placed in the water while she was still "alive and moving and kicking." Chad Fox looked on the rumors as confirmation that Kevin-still not represented by a lawyer-was a suspect, perhaps the only suspect. But after the initial testing by the state crime lab, with its inconclusive finding on saliva, the DNA had been sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, which had a nine-month backlog. Wilmington, IL Baskerville Funeral Home - Wilmington Friday, February 17, 2023 Add Photos Add a Memory MICHAEL R. JOHNSTONE Age 59 of Wilmington, formerly of West Chicago, Illinois, passed. The claim triggered an investigation from a representative of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. "They were putting words in his mouth," she claims. But as the summer wore on, they came to believe that the investigation was dragging. The image was almost as precious, in fact, as the photo a few pages later of Chad, Stacy, Kevin, Melissa, Tyler, and Riley smiling back at the camera in their wedding formalwear. A picture of the children would make its way into Chad's wedding album, a cherished memento of a perfect day. Melissa begged her husband, "Please hold me, hold me.". (A spokesman said Glasgow wouldn't comment for this story because of the pending litigation.). Also, Tomczak alleged during Kevin's initial hearing that "the autopsy report indicated [Riley] was alive and struggling when placed in the water." By the end he has answered "no" approximately 178 times. He had been undergoing questioning for nearly 12 hours. . But when one of Zellner's assistants tried to do so with a 40-pound bag-the approximate weight of Riley at the time of the murder-the bag was blocked by debris. . Thus, he contacted the police on the non-emergency phone line (an action that would later raise suspicion against him). On a recent April evening, however, their attentions are devoted to gentler undertakings: their new baby girl, Teagan, who was born on March 8th. She put her hand on Kevin's leg. Also added were the polygraph examiner, Richard C. Williams, Pluth, Kaupas, and a jail guard. . With the case against Kevin collapsing, the new Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow held an immediate court hearing. In fact, the case was already out of their hands. Case closed. Later, when speaking about his experience after getting out of jail, he said, I still had people coming up to me and saying I was a child killer, child molester and threatening to shoot me and my dog. Melissa added to this by saying that people ceased to trust them, and children werent allowed to have sleepovers at their house. Nonetheless, since Kevin's release, a fresh group of investigators has taken over the case, though nothing promising has turned up. For hours, Kevin and Melissa shook hands and gave hugs, receiving mourners until they could barely stand. Meanwhile, several statements by Tomczak, which later proved unfounded, cast another shadow over Kevin. The few clues that might have pointed to other suspects were either discounted or ignored. But Kevin knew he was meant to be with Melissa. People wonder: who would do it? ', "I started shaking and crying," she says. But we feel closer to her when we go there. NewsBreak provides latest and breaking Wilmington, IL local news, weather forecast, crime and safety reports, traffic updates, event notices, sports, entertainment, local life and other items of interest in the community and nearby towns. Northwestern University School of Law's Center on Wrongful Convictions reports that 60 percent of the 42 wrongful murder convictions since 1970 in Illinois have rested in whole or in part on false confessions. Kevin Corke is an American journalist and is presently a White House Correspondents' Association for Fox News in Washington D.C. Corke has covered four U.S. administrations (Bush, Obama, Trump, Biden). The Kevin Fox they knew was a wonderful father, devoted to his wife and son and daughter. At a hearing on January 28, 2005, Will County prosecutors turned over several police reports to Zellner and her defense team. Great article. In hindsight, the couple believe that either the police "were just completely overwhelmed by the fact that there was a murder in Wilmington and they had no idea what to do," Melissa says, "-or they were watching to see how we would react." Kevin and Melissa have visited it many times, as they have Riley's grave in Wilmington's Oakwood Cemetery. 2 bds; 1 ba; 1,000 sqft - Active. "I felt as if I had aged five years since Kevin's arrest," he says. But this family's response-and I have to say when I met Kevin I understood-was that it isn't conceivable that someone like Kevin Fox could hurt anybody. Melissa knew by their faces that the news was grim. As if in anticipation of unavoidable criticism, Tomczak had earlier stopped at the defense table where Kevin Fox's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, was seated. "He watched everybody search for his child the whole day," one woman, a ten-year resident of Wilmington, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "We don't want to lose sight of one of the big tragedies-and major points-of this case," Zellner says, "the fact that, because the wrong man was pursued, a killer is still on the loose. At last, eight days later, Zellner stood near a fax machine in Glasgow's office. The extended Fox family danced the night away, though before too long Riley and Tyler had curled up under a table and fallen sound asleep. "What did he do when he left? ", Kevin began to pound the walls. WILMINGTONRoger J. Johnson, 62, of Wilmington, passed away Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 at his home. Why did Kevin call the nonemergency line instead of 911 the morning of Riley's disappearance? The Tribune quickly threw its editorial support to Glasgow, saying on October 22nd that he didn't "carry the burden of doubts about the ethical conduct of his campaign.". 3-year-old Riley Fox was found inside a creek a little distance away from her home in Wilmington, Illinois. Will County sheriff's detectives had taken charge, assuming jurisdiction because the crime scene was in a forest preserve. Pluth asks again. "You guys are nuts!". Kevin Fox, who could have faced the death penalty, was released with all charges dropped. It was one of the first times she had spent the night away from the kids, but for her, it was a worthy venture-a way to honor her late father. Greater Philadelphia. View the profiles of people named Kevin Fox. As often as not, the town's dozen full-time police officers are looked on less as faceless authorities than as neighbors and friends and former high-school classmates. The only way to dissuade them, he says they told him, would be to take a polygraph test. Join Facebook to connect with Kevin Fox and others you may know. Tomczak did not return calls requesting an interview, but in court pleadings he has denied any wrongdoing, including any suggestion that Kevin Fox's arrest was related to his re-election campaign. According to a statement he later gave police, he picked the kids up and drove them home at around 1 a.m. Then, too tired to make up their beds, he laid them down in the living room-Riley on the couch and Tyler on a chair with a footstool. 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