If charges were to be filed, he would be the one to bring them. "I felt like a zoo animal.". Kankakee, IL (60901) Today. A self-described small-town boy from Wilmington, Illinois, he was there to act as best man for his older brother, Chad. Suddenly, at about three that afternoon, police jumped in their cars and sped off. "We think you were involved." At 8:32 a.m., detectives turned on the video camera and began to tape Kevin's statement. In one resolved in December 2001, she helped free three men who had falsely confessed to the 1986 murder and rape of a Rush University medical student named Lori Roscetti. For all his initial trepidation, Kevin took to fatherhood in a way that surprised even his closest family. The aftershocks of his arrest, however, reverberate in the form of a lawsuit he and his wife have brought against Will County authorities. Kevin told police that Riley was wearing a white T-shirt with a pink flamingo on it and pink capri pants. 82/55F. Immediately, we both started crying. That Saturday night, she stayed at a campsite with friends in Skokie. "We didn't want to turn it into another JonBenet Ramsey case. Zellner is skeptical. [1] After Riley's father was initially accused and then cleared by DNA evidence, paroled convict Scott Eby confessed to the crime and was convicted. Kevin is a producer and writer, known for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), The Negotiator (1998) and Lie to Me (2009). She screamed when she realized what she had found. ", Today, Zellner says that what impressed her was Kevin's immediate denial of the crime. Menu. Kevins then-wife, Melissa, was away in Chicago during that weekend, and on June 5, Kevin decided to attend a concert in Chicago. That night, before turning in, Chad peeked into the guest bedroom, where Kevin, Melissa, and Tyler had already crashed. Info: 773-581-9000. "I kept saying, What's going on? Once the hearing was under way, Glasgow came right to the point: the DNA resulted in an "absolute exclusion of Kevin Fox as a donor," the prosecutor told the judge. Riley Fox Riley Fox (March 31, 2001 - June 6, 2004) was a 3-year-old girl from Wilmington, Illinois, who was murdered on June 6, 2004. "I used to love it," Kevin says of his hometown. He spent eight months in prison before he was released and ultimately cleared through DNA evidence. A copy of the tape has not been released to the public, but Zellner has viewed it and she claims Kevin's manner is vague and halting. 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. The results did not match, and hence after eight months of being imprisoned, Kevin was finally let go. 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. 21244 W Highway 113 Rte #113, Wilmington, IL 60481. "We felt we could never get an answer on the progress of the case," Kevin says. The ruling elite is now past retardation for many centuries. "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.". . Shameful how Politics, selfishness, and greed were more important. When pressed about the car, Kevin recalls, he became exasperated and suggested sarcastically that someone must have snuck into his house, stolen his keys, taken the car, and returned it later. 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. No sign of her. The Fox 8 Meteorologist gave birth to a son in 2017 alongside her husband Ryan. For Chad, the fight to clear his kid brother's name became a crusade. "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. The couple announced the birth of their son via social media to their friends and followers. "They did everything together," recalls Curt Fox, Kevin's dad. 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. I pledged the same fraternity. I knew it wasn't true. Everything about the men, even their appearance, seemed at odds. Bad blood had existed between the men for years. A little before eight in the morning, however, Tyler came into Kevin's room. It had all happened so quickly-had seemed to make so much sense in the moment. "This isn't political," he said. 2 bds; 1 ba; 1,000 sqft - Active. I don't even know how to describe it. "So just say you did it." With a huge smile on her face, she headed straight to her daddy, who scooped her up into his arms. Now he was free. "Riley is in the room with you right now," the lawsuit quotes Guilfoyle as saying. Instead, going on a "gut feeling," he said, they "rolled bones" in the hope they could elicit a confession. Chad Fox looked on the rumors as confirmation that Kevin-still not represented by a lawyer-was a suspect, perhaps the only suspect. "Any charges of politics are baseless," Tomczak said in a statement the day after Fox's arrest. What did he want to do on his first night out, he was asked. "You're overcome by grief. Authorities initially charged the young girl's father, Kevin Fox, with the murder, based largely on a videotape confession that he'd killed Riley. Are you kidding me?" The story seemed preposterous. 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. At 12:20 a.m. on October 27th, according to the detectives' summary of events, detective Richard Williams arrived to administer the exam. Five months later, a gallery of stunned observers packed the hearing at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. Most of those who knew Kevin and the rest of the Fox family believed in his innocence. He recanted almost immediately, but spent eight months in jail before DNA evidence led to his release. Riley Fox was sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, and drowned in a creek in Wilmington, Illinois. But we feel closer to her when we go there. From his Joliet offices, Will County State's Attorney Jeffery Tomczak kept close tabs on the investigation's progress. Later, however, he would reflect on the bittersweet nature of the day. "Let the little children come to me," said the Rev. (A water usage report from that night suggests that the washing machine did not run.) He was not a match, Bode reported. "He was crying," she recalls. "When I reached out to Kevin and said, I believe you,' I think they got pissed." Worse, when Bode finally got the DNA, the family was told testing would take two months, and that the chances of finding male saliva in Riley's DNA were slim because there was so little genetic material to test. ", The couple, however, have moved out of Wilmington. Today, Chad fumes that his brother was not told earlier. 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. By her account, Swearengen said that he suspected that Kevin had bumped Riley's head, perhaps while opening the bathroom door, and had panicked when it appeared she was dead. It put stress on the couple, and soon, they separated with Melissa moving out with both children. To escape from their past, the couple left their Wilmington home and moved to a Chicago suburb. The murder of his daughter remains unsolved. . A search for the young girl began. 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. In the cold, shallow, murky water of Forked Creek, Riley's body floated, face-down. The timing was less than ideal for the couple. . High 24F. As the day wore on, local merchants pitched in with food and pop. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. And he realized he needed to take responsibility for his child. Teagan healed the tragic past of her mother and father, yet, Melissa claimed that Rileys death and Kevins false arrest was more than the couple could bear to go through. 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. I can help this kid if he acts now," the detective quoted the state's attorney as saying. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. A federal jury awarded Fox and his wife, Melissa, $15.5 million for false arrest and. At a hearing on January 28, 2005, Will County prosecutors turned over several police reports to Zellner and her defense team. When Zellner told Chad, the older brother laid his head down on a table and wept. They love to see innocent children tortured and defiled for their indigent minds because it elevates an idiot. Location of This Business. A "source," his face hidden behind a black blob, his voice disguised, repeated the rumors in Jacobson's "exclusive" interview. He turned to Lyons, incredulous that the detective hadn't told him earlier. Zellner also began looking into an element that seemed to have been forgotten: the DNA evidence taken from Riley. (Pluth did not return calls or an e-mail message.). That morning in the Will County jail, Zellner watched the interaction between the two brothers closely. By now, hundreds of townsfolk were clawing through brush and woods. The weekend of June 5 and 6, 2004, Melissa Fox left Wilmington to participate in a breast cancer walk in Chicago. He struggles to catch his breath between sobs. A year after their marriage, they added a daughter to the family-an apple-cheeked princess with a pile of light brown hair. View the profiles of people named Kevin Fox. What more can they possibly want to know? The DNA had been sent to the state crime lab, not Virginia, and then returned to Joliet. The lab had found a man's saliva-just enough to extract a full DNA profile. Kevin had been up since 4:30 that morning and had spent much of his day working at a painting job. His little girl had seemed to hold a special place in his heart. ", By now, Melissa's brother had arrived at the jail, as had Kevin's father. You're offered a less serious offense and the chance to go home to your family and clear things up later in court. 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. But if Kevin was joking, the police apparently didn't get it. How could a lightweight bathroom door knock a little girl out so completely that she appeared dead? By the time the state's attorney had finished, Kevin's shoulders were shaking. Kevin Fox, Rileys father, was affected a lot as he was still in mourning when he was seen as the prime suspect and even put in jail for the same. She had traded in the Ford Escape for a new car. As if in anticipation of unavoidable criticism, Tomczak had earlier stopped at the defense table where Kevin Fox's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, was seated. Eighteen of those children were stolen from the home. Experts on interrogation and false confessions say that's not uncommon. Case closed. She put her hand on Kevin's leg. She had been following the case in the media, and she urged Chad to get his brother to talk to her. The sheriff's summary report portrays Melissa as expressing doubts about her husband's innocence. Tomczak wrapped up the hearing by asking for a $25-million bond, a request that drew gasps from the gallery. On October 25th, a little more than a week before the election, the four detectives working on the Riley Fox murder-Scott Swearengen, John Ruettiger, Michael Guilfoyle, and Edward Hayes-convened at the Will County sheriff's office in Joliet to discuss bringing Kevin in for an interrogation. 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. Indeed, he had promised to press ahead with the death penalty. This time there were no cameras or tape recorders. Weather forecast Wilmington, North Carolina . Tomczak added other details: The girl had been placed in the water while she was still "alive and moving and kicking." 66F. How do they sleep at night? "I felt like I had nothing to hide," he says, and he worried that hiring an attorney might make him look guilty. An Amber alert for Riley Fox had flashed on the scoreboard. At one point an assistant interrupted the presentation by bursting into the courtroom and thrusting a document into Tomczak's hand. Greater Philadelphia. But several days later, while reviewing the state crime lab's report, Zellner puzzled over the "inconclusive" finding for the presence of male saliva. 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. As for the murder of Riley, "You did it," the lawsuit quotes Williams as saying. 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. By midnight that night, Kevin says, the detectives had dropped all pretense of friendliness. . The interrogation and arrest of Fox, the suit alleges, was part of a last-ditch effort by Tomczak to win re-election. People wonder: who would do it? Whats even sadder is that the detectives and all parties involved were not interested in finding the real monster who would take such a beautiful innocent child away from their family. Meanwhile, several statements by Tomczak, which later proved unfounded, cast another shadow over Kevin. But early Sunday morning, Tyler woke up Kevin to tell him that Riley was missing. ", Today, in recalling this part of the interrogation, Kevin weeps. 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. To the people who knew Kevin Fox, the hearing seemed unreal. (Will County investigators refuse comment on the quality of the videotape. Par for the course. (A spokesman said Glasgow wouldn't comment for this story because of the pending litigation.). On Feb. 9, the Wilmington City Council held a special meeting at Wilmington High School. ", At one point, according to the lawsuit, Hayes leaned close and told Kevin that he "knew people" at the jail, "and would make sure' that Kevin was fucked' every day unless he told them what they wanted to hear." 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.". Three years later, in 2000, with Kevin having found work as a union painter and Melissa as a waitress, the two were married. Ke 11 Share Dressed in a tuxedo-dapper but slightly self-conscious-Kevin Fox took his place at the wedding altar inside Holy Name Cathedral, awestruck by the majesty that surrounded him: the light slanting through the stained glass windows, the arches soaring up to gilt ceilings, the bas-relief of Abraham offering to sacrifice his child. Pat Barry continues to defend the work of the Will County detectives. ", Kevin says that Swearengen suggested the same "accident" scenario that he had proposed to Melissa nearly nine hours earlier. "No." View Source Share Save to Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Memorials Region North America USA Illinois Find a suspect, any suspect, and nail him/her. "Are you kidding me?" 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. In less than an hour, it seemed the whole town had turned out. Heartwarming that Kevins wife, brother, family, and Ms. Zelner stood by his side. Kevin Fox was initially charged with his daughter's June 2004 murder. However, there are no details about his exact age and birth year. Kevin, on the other hand, claimed that the police coerced him into admitting guilt. Great article. . 442-H New York Standard Operating Procedures New York Fair Housing Notice TREC: . Kaupas acknowledged that the detectives had had no substantial new evidence when they called in Kevin. she asks. The Nightmare: A Look at the Riley Fox Case, 2020 Chicago magazine / A Chicago Tribune Media Group website, Photograph: Courtesy of Chad and Stacy Fox. 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. Find a suspect, any suspect, abd mail him/ her. And they turn the page. BBB File Opened: 12/28/2015. The Fox family has also pushed for the passage of "Riley's Law," a measure that would expedite DNA testing after child murders. Not fair! . Within moments, Swearengen appeared and led her into an adjoining room. Kevin, after all, had been the last person known to have seen Riley alive. Winds light and variable.. Suspicion hung over her family as time went by. Guilfoyle's report did not surface until May, seven months after Kevin had been arrested. 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