A videotape captured the session, conducted by a forensic interviewer named Mary Jane Pluth, who works for the Will County Children's Advocacy Center. In early May, U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah rejected those arguments with one exception (a claim against Sheriff Kaupas). "They found her at Forsythe Woods," Curt answered in a broken voice. Then, after calling his estranged wife to tell her about the shootings, he turned his gun on himself and . "You don't have much time," Hayes warned. His little chest heaves and his thin shoulders shake. After a brief reunion with Melissa and Tyler, Kevin emerged from the jail with his arms raised in triumph and stood before a mob scene of cameras and well-wishers. [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. "And you'd have to have hit her on the head with a hammer to get the effect" Kevin described in the interrogation. (Through his attorney, Gerald Haberkorn, Hayes denied any allegations of impropriety. Among those in attendance, unobtrusive but noticeable, were two men holding video cameras. 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. 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. Melissa Fox is the mother of Riley fox and the then-wife of Kevin Fox. A statement by Kevin himself saying he had been tricked into confessing was posted on a Web site three days after the interrogation. Kevin Fox was eventually released, and the case against him was dismissed. According to that report, Tyler became much more specific and descriptive. (Today, Jacobson tells Chicago that she later "felt awful" and regretted the report. A search for the young girl began. Trending. He has also, on matters unrelated to the case, been in error in at least 13 instances, according to the Fox suit. Virtually none of the principals involved in the case has gone untouched. Will County detectives spent considerable time and effort establishing that other local owners of dark Ford Escapes were not in sight of the video camera that morning. 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. "They thought they had me convinced," she says. That morning in the Will County jail, Zellner watched the interaction between the two brothers closely. Still, Pluth pursues her questioning. Zellner also began looking into an element that seemed to have been forgotten: the DNA evidence taken from Riley. . "I was raised with the idea that authorities were good people and that they should be respected.". "It's now or never," the lawsuit claims the detective said. With the possibility of a trial, Zellner began to reinvestigate the case. 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. 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. ", Kevin's account of the interrogation continues: Swearengen burst into the room, out of breath and saying he had just talked to Tomczak. And, most telling, how could detectives ignore that Kevin had not provided a single piece of information that only the killer would have known, such as the whereabouts of Riley's capri pants? You're put into a cramped room and subjected to an unusually long interrogation. Zellner is such a bad ass!!! The Will County sheriff seems content to blame former Will County state's attorney Jeff Tomczak for any missteps. By Guilfoyle's account, the boy also said things that seem to contradict known facts-that Kevin had dressed Riley in pajamas, for instance. The only way to dissuade them, he says they told him, would be to take a polygraph test. 81/63F. Also, Tomczak alleged during Kevin's initial hearing that "the autopsy report indicated [Riley] was alive and struggling when placed in the water." Glasgow would later say he was "shocked" at the results. Months. With the case against Kevin collapsing, the new Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow held an immediate court hearing. The timing was less than ideal for the couple. Tall and striking, with dark brown shoulder-length hair, Zellner has made a name for herself by winning wrongful conviction cases. "They'd come back with their legs scratched up and bleeding," recalls Kevin. The relationship evolved quickly and, just after Kevin started college at Illinois State University, Melissa, then 18, became pregnant with Tyler. ), The detectives then took Kevin back to the interrogation room and resumed the questioning, according to the lawsuit. After Kevin graduated high school and entered college, Melissa got pregnant with their first child Tyler. "He changed more diapers and fed and bathed the kids way more than the average father.". He would eventually become such a fixture that the family would refer to him simply as "Scott.". (Tomczak later accused Kevin of lying during his confession-concocting the story of the bathroom door to hide his guilt in molesting Riley.) At one point, Chad received a call from a friend watching the Cubs game. 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. When he first noticed Riley missing, he did not want to worry unnecessarily. Hundreds more turned out the next day for the funeral, many wearing pink ribbons and ties and butterfly pins. View the profiles of people named Kevin Fox. ", They were greeted at the door by Swearengen. 28, 2008. 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. At one point, he asks for his "mommy and daddy." 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. As they had wanted to do all along, the family began to offer a reward, for $20,000. On a recent April evening, however, their attentions are devoted to gentler undertakings: their new baby girl, Teagan, who was born on March 8th. Meanwhile, the mystery of what happened to Riley Fox remains. They later portrayed his statement as an attempt to provide a possible alibi. The Fox family had called Wilmington home for generations. On April 5th, Zellner says, she learned why. He'd barely had time to grab a bite to eat all day. Authorities initially charged the young girl's father, Kevin Fox, with the murder, based largely on a videotape confession that he'd killed Riley. "You guys are nuts!". Also unbeknownst to Kevin and Melissa, the police were pursuing another lead that might point toward Kevin. 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. But the parents believed they had cooperated in every way possible, including providing DNA samples, consenting to searches, and answering questions. The DNA had been sent to the state crime lab, not Virginia, and then returned to Joliet. That night, Kevin drove to Chicago, too, to attend a concert with a friend and one of Melissa's brothers. But Zellner, who has viewed a copy of the videotape, says it's too fuzzy to make out a license plate or even to positively identify any vehicle. Before putting the girl in the water, he inserted his finger inside her to make it look like she had been sexually assaulted. Both stations share studios on Shipyard Boulevard in Wilmington, while WSFX-TV's . Unfortunately, however, their world turned upside down on the fateful date of June 6, 2004. On one level, the couple could understand that the authorities might hold them-or at least Kevin-under suspicion. Fox's lawsuit alleges that the meeting was conducted with Tomczak's support and consent. The two had clashed on nearly everything, from elections to court cases to ethical conduct. Police would reveal nothing. Born in Atchison, Kansas, November 6, 1928, Jim was the second son of Jared Copeland Fox III and Ethel Carroll Fox. 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 . Next. "Say it was an accident. Finally they were brought out into a waiting room, where Curt, Dawn, Chad, and Stacy had already gathered. Meanwhile, Tomczak and Glasgow were said to be running neck and neck in the state's attorney's race. Hayes made Kevin watch as he filled out an arrest sheet for first-degree murder. He immediately noticed that the front door and screen were ajar. 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. 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. He claws his sweatshirt hood over his head. A father of two, he made a failed run for Congress in 1994, but in the 2000 race for Will County state's attorney, the Republican Tomczak beat the incumbent Democrat, James Glasgow. And if it became clear that there was no new information they should leave immediately. Television satellite trucks roared into town, deploying their parabolic dishes and disgorging reporters. He yelled, Your fucking husband killed your fucking daughter and he doesn't love you or her. Kankakee, IL (60901) Today. 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. The couple announced the birth of their son via social media to their friends and followers. Pat Barry insists that Tomczak knew nothing of the meeting, and that, no matter how questionable the timing appears, politics had nothing to do with it. And they turn the page. By midnight that night, Kevin says, the detectives had dropped all pretense of friendliness. The Fox family expressed staunch support of Kevin. View Source Share Save to Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Memorials Region North America USA Illinois . . "I felt like a zoo animal.". When Zellner told Chad, the older brother laid his head down on a table and wept. On this night, however, leafing through a picture book, with Kevin holding Teagan, and Tyler peering over Melissa's shoulder, they can smile when they reach the photograph of the happy family they once were, when the biggest worries were a best man's toast and a little girl wanting to stand beside her daddy. The detective shook his head. . The murder of his daughter remains unsolved. Their lenses, the family later learned, were trained not on the ceremony, or the casket, but on the mourners, including Kevin Fox. A tip came in claiming that video surveillance cameras at the town's Mobil station might have captured a car like that at four in the morning of Riley's disappearance. In fact, a day after the election, an order had come from the Will County Sheriff's Office halting any testing of DNA evidence in the Riley Fox murder. 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. "Riley is in the room with you right now," the lawsuit quotes Guilfoyle as saying. Five months later, a gallery of stunned observers packed the hearing at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. "But the awful truth is," he says, "I wanted to see more. If he slipped in the mud, why were his clothes not muddy? Kevin and Melissa met while in high school together, and they quickly took to each other and fell in love. ", The couple, however, have moved out of Wilmington. 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. But if Kevin was joking, the police apparently didn't get it. Promising a suspect leniency to confess is forbidden under Illinois law, and the detectives have denied in court pleadings that they did so. Buoyed over the finding, Zellner secured a court order to have the material tested by a private lab-Bode Technology Group in Virginia. 82/55F. At 12:20 a.m. on October 27th, according to the detectives' summary of events, detective Richard Williams arrived to administer the exam. The machine clicked on at a couple of minutes before the hour. 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 authorities have not mentioned the videotape in court, though they did bring it up during the interrogation before Kevin confessed. A self-described small-town boy from Wilmington, Illinois, he was there to act as best man for his older brother, Chad. For all his initial trepidation, Kevin took to fatherhood in a way that surprised even his closest family. ", 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." Kevin Fox and his family refused last year to pay $100,000 to Trisha Kiefer, the former girlfriend of Scott Eby, who was convicted of killing 3-year-old Riley Fox. His little girl had seemed to hold a special place in his heart. and we stand behind them.". "I felt like I had nothing to hide," he says, and he worried that hiring an attorney might make him look guilty. Melissa, who was also told that Kevin had failed, demanded to see the results. Among the allegations was that the father had made illegal contributions to his son's campaign. Three years later, in 2000, with Kevin having found work as a union painter and Melissa as a waitress, the two were married. Kevin Fox was born in 1968. The weekend of June 5 and 6, 2004, Melissa Fox left Wilmington to participate in a breast cancer walk in Chicago. Subscribe for free today! More than 6,000 people attended the wake-nearly 1,000 more than the entire population of Wilmington. Dawn has a reported annual income of $10 - 19,999 and a current net worth value of greater than $50,000 - $99,999. Date Posted: Sunday, February 26th, 2023. At a press conference, Glasgow stopped short of directly criticizing Tomczak, but the implication was clear: he thought the case had been mishandled, particularly when it came to the long delay in DNA testing. Join Facebook to connect with Kevin Fox and others you may know. Once, he nods. In the cold, shallow, murky water of Forked Creek, Riley's body floated, face-down. The complaint accuses them of conducting a sloppy investigation that, from the start, focused almost exclusively on Kevin Fox and ignored any evidence that might have cast doubt on his guilt. "Everything's going to be OK," she told him. ', "I started shaking and crying," she says. Wilmington, Illinois - June 6, 2004 On the weekend of June 6, 2004, Melissa Fox and a group of friends participated in the AVON Walk for Breast Cancer in Chicago, where she stayed for two nights. He recalled that his father "took Riley somewhere" during the night. Not fair! She was three years old at the time of her death. Yet before dawn Saturday, the former church deacon shot and killed each of his three young sons as they lay sleeping. During that town hall style session, Mayor Ben Dietz delivered a state of the city speech to the more than four dozen people in attendance, laying out . And he realized he needed to take responsibility for his child. Panicking, he scooped her up and carried her to his car, retrieving some duct tape from the back. "I had never even met him before and he was just screaming in my face. Now, just a handful of minutes after giving his statement, he sat behind a Plexiglas window with a phone in his hand, shaking his head and crying as his older brother, Chad, and Kathleen Zellner watched helplessly and offered what comfort they could. 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. He wore a red jump suit and was shackled at the legs and hands. But it slowly dawned on him that the whole thing-the supposed sympathy of the detectives, the "friendship" of "Scott," the seemingly cordial questioning-had been a ruse. (Hunter says today that even if he had been available, he would have refused to give the test on that occasion because Fox's interrogation had been so lengthy and confrontational.) We found 59 records for Kevin Fox in Wilmington, IL. ABC News 20/20 features this murder in one of their episodes and takes the viewer through the harrowing ordeal Rileys family had to go through after losing their child. 21244 W Highway 113 Rte #113, Wilmington, IL 60481. (Pluth did not return calls or an e-mail message.). A preliminary report indicated no signs of foreign DNA-with one possible exception: a test for saliva in her vagina came back "inconclusive.". Kevin likes to keep his private life under wraps, and hence his present whereabouts are unclear. 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