With the death of a child under these circumstances, the police look first to the family. . Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. The Fox family expressed staunch support of Kevin. Chad recalls the moment vividly: "Kevin looked at me and said, I didn't do this. The few clues that might have pointed to other suspects were either discounted or ignored. 66F. The weeks dragged by. Until the night of Kevin's long interrogation several months later, authorities never told him and Melissa what Tyler allegedly had said. . Date Posted: Sunday, February 26th, 2023. 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. On April 5th, Zellner says, she learned why. "Something didn't feel right," Chad recalls. Tall and striking, with dark brown shoulder-length hair, Zellner has made a name for herself by winning wrongful conviction cases. In fact, it would be the last photo of all of them together, taken as it was just two weeks before the little girl would be found floating face-down in a creek. (Today, Fox's legal team says that the results were at best unreliable.) The Las Vegas trip was to attend a friend's wedding and had been planned and paid for months before Riley's death. To accommodate the expected crowds, Riley's viewing, five days after the murder, was held at the town's largest church, St. Rose Catholic. Around 2:15, he went to the bathroom and swung the door open quickly, striking Riley and knocking her down. Subscribe to one or more of our free e-mail newsletters to get instant updates on local news, events, and opportunities in Chicago. 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. That night, Kevin drove to Chicago, too, to attend a concert with a friend and one of Melissa's brothers. Case closed. 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. . "The state's attorney's office at that point needs to get involved and say, Wait a minute. "Say it was an accident. If you pass it up, you will spend your life in prison. Even if Kevin had accidentally hurt Riley, he would have tried to resuscitate her-he was certified in CPR. Promising a suspect leniency to confess is forbidden under Illinois law, and the detectives have denied in court pleadings that they did so. Another resident told the paper, "It's what a lot of people suspected.". How do they sleep at night? ", Today, in recalling this part of the interrogation, Kevin weeps. Which made what happened even more mysterious and frightening. 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. "I was raised with the idea that authorities were good people and that they should be respected.". "I tagged around when we were in high school. Kevin Fox and his family paid little attention to the politics of the race. "They made me sit in a room for 45 minutes," Melissa says, still furious at the memory. "We need you to come to the police station," an officer told them. 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 . The only way to dissuade them, he says they told him, would be to take a polygraph test. 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. As she neared Wilmington, Melissa felt a chill. Facebook gives people the power to share. They describe a codified series of emotional and intellectual manipulations designed to break down even the strongest of personalities. Months went by with no breaks in the case. Who would admit to such horrible things if he hadn't really done them? Hope they find some peace. He called Wilmington police, but not wanting to raise an alarm prematurely, he would later explain, he decided to call the nonemergency line-a choice that was later questioned. Previously, he was a national news correspondent based in Washington, D.C. for NBC News from 2004-2008. Tomczak wrapped up the hearing by asking for a $25-million bond, a request that drew gasps from the gallery. Seventeen years ago, Zellner's client, Kevin Fox, was wrongly arrested and charged with killing his little girl. What's more, investigators would be able to place the car along the route that led to Forsythe Woods, where Riley's body had been found. she quotes him as saying. While I was very interested in reading this well-written story; it breaks my heart to think of the Fox family losing their daughter and then on top of such a nightmare, the family has to be tortured even more! 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. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. . Harder still was the family portrait with Riley in her princess dress and white satin slippers. 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. Kevin Fox was born in 1968. Instead, going on a "gut feeling," he said, they "rolled bones" in the hope they could elicit a confession. Melissa reeled. Still, both wept when they learned Melissa was carrying a girl. "That's failed. The Fox 8 Meteorologist gave birth to a son in 2017 alongside her husband Ryan. Not even close. Why would a father with CPR training make no attempt to revive his daughter? She had been following the case in the media, and she urged Chad to get his brother to talk to her. The machine clicked on at a couple of minutes before the hour. "I thought it was a little strange," Melissa says. Almost immediately after his arrest, Kevin and Melissa brought this multi-count, multi-party lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. On this day, however, the mood was festive. In addition, Corke serves as a recurring guest-anchor on FOX News @ Night (weeknights . "I've just been handed our certificate of intent to seek the death penalty in this case," the prosecutor declared. He began having nightmares in which he would see Kevin strapped to a gurney, about to receive a lethal injection. Next. Glasgow seemed like a fair man, but he had given no indication that he planned to drop charges against Kevin. What more can they possibly want to know? People wonder: who would do it? Kevin Fox in Illinois We found 15 records for Kevin Fox in undefined. 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 . "I knew he was innocent, and I knew my family was in for the fight of its life," he says. Very sad. Elsewhere in the building, in a small, cramped room with a low ceiling and a one-way mirror about the size of a cereal box, Kevin sat in a corner, facing a group of detectives, including an intense man with strawberry-blond hair and a flushed complexion: Ed Hayes. I made you drive me around when you got your license. Fewer than 20 new single family homes were built last year in the villages of Coal City and Diamond. Kevin knew virtually nothing about such statistics or the theories of interrogation techniques. "It's hard," Kevin says. On the outside, the stress of trying to free Kevin weighed heavily on the Fox family, especially Chad. But after briefly talking to one lawyer, Kevin dismissed the idea. ", The couple held hands as they made their way across the parking lot to the Will County sheriff's office in Joliet at about 7:30 that night. If the car turned out to be the Fox vehicle, Kevin's alibi that he was asleep all night would be seriously undermined. 3-year-old Riley Fox was found inside a creek a little distance away from her home in Wilmington, Illinois. Are you kidding me?" Maryland Man Arrested After Crashing Stolen Vehicle. "I didn't do it, Melissa," he answered back, looking her in the eye. He then went home and slept," the prosecutor said. He admitted placing his finger in the vagina of the child. More than 6,000 people attended the wake-nearly 1,000 more than the entire population of Wilmington. They first tested where Kevin said he had left the body-according to his confession, he had placed it in the water at the base of the Kahler Bridge, slipping once as he made his way down the muddy embankment. "I kept saying, What's going on? Most important, Kevin says, he trusted the detectives' motives. "We know you killed your daughter," they said, according to the suit. "People would walk by my cell and sit in front and look at me," he says. You're offered a less serious offense and the chance to go home to your family and clear things up later in court. Respect! Yet before dawn Saturday, the former church deacon shot and killed each of his three young sons as they lay sleeping. On October 11th, a report by Amy Jacobson, the tall blond reporter from Chicago's NBC 5, gave voice to the whispers. Kevin worked as a union painter to earn a living, while Melissa got a job as a waitress. On one level, the couple could understand that the authorities might hold them-or at least Kevin-under suspicion. The defendants have sought to have the claim dismissed, arguing among other things that prosecutors are immune from such claims. The claim triggered an investigation from a representative of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The Fox family had called Wilmington home for generations. Before that, she was a television news reporter for ABC and FOX affiliates in North Carolina and Illinois. Kevin told police that Riley was wearing a white T-shirt with a pink flamingo on it and pink capri pants. Twitter Lhamo. Read More Business Details. I wanted to see if I could find anything in those pictures that would help me figure out for myself what had happened, who had done this to my baby. Indeed, by late October of 2004 Kevin was the prime suspect. Ruettiger straddled Kevin's legs, pressing his testicles into Kevin's knees. The Foxes owned a dark blue Ford Escape. He then went home, cried for a while, and went to sleep. At one point, he asks for his "mommy and daddy." "If I finish the sheet, you are being charged with first-degree murder with 30 years to life. Trying not to panic, Kevin searched the house. Par for the course. If you say it was an accident, it's involuntary manslaughter with a three to five year sentence. Greater Philadelphia. , Inc. holds real estate brokerage licenses in multiple provinces. 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. "She didn't make it. 28, 2008. WSFX-TV (channel 26) is a television station in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, affiliated with the Fox network. Glasgow was trim with a blow-dried pompadour of silver. As if in anticipation of unavoidable criticism, Tomczak had earlier stopped at the defense table where Kevin Fox's attorney, Kathleen Zellner, was seated. Kevin is a producer and writer, known for Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999), The Negotiator (1998) and Lie to Me (2009). One study suggests that, though rare, it happens. The Rossi family had moved to Wilmington when Melissa was in the third grade. Tyler, the six-year-old spitting image of his dad, bore the ring; beside him toddled Tyler's three-year-old sister, Riley. Phone: (910) 343-3900. . "You're overcome by grief. "We really tried to stay the course," he told reporters. "That night she asked me to her homecoming," Kevin recalls with a laugh. "For it is to such as these the kingdom of God belongs.". 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. She screamed when she realized what she had found. "Todd, what the hell! Protocols should be revised and people in positions of authority need to be accoutable for their actions! Zellner is such a bad ass!!! Chief Mickler currently resides in Wilmington with his wife, Rebecca, and their two sons. His image hovers ghostlike in the frame. His little girl had seemed to hold a special place in his heart. There's a bowling alley and a post office and a small movie house. Why would Tyler say Kevin had walked out during the night with Riley? 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. 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. His little chest heaves and his thin shoulders shake. Three years later, in 2000, with Kevin having found work as a union painter and Melissa as a waitress, the two were married. BIOG: NAME: UPD: 19970226 -TEXT-. After the bailiff called the court to order, Tomczak laid out what he called cold, hard evidence of the father's guilt, including a confession. Also added were the polygraph examiner, Richard C. Williams, Pluth, Kaupas, and a jail guard. Did he take Riley somewhere?" But Kevin knew he was meant to be with Melissa. In early May, U.S. District Judge John W. Darrah rejected those arguments with one exception (a claim against Sheriff Kaupas). Instead, she marched up the marble stairs and past the groom. "Because I think to myself what Riley would be doing right now. . Bad blood had existed between the men for years. Unable to sleep at first, he watched some TV, snacked, then went to bed around 2:30, turning on a fan against the hot night in the un-air-conditioned house. The relationship evolved quickly and, just after Kevin started college at Illinois State University, Melissa, then 18, became pregnant with Tyler. The Will County Sheriff's Office defends its detectives' handling of the case, including the 14 1/2-hour interrogation that led to Fox's confession. 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. In his 2007 budget, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich included a similar initiative that would add eight forensic scientists to the state's crime labs. Kevin and Melissa met while in high school together, and they quickly took to each other and fell in love. What did he want to do on his first night out, he was asked. We hope he finds some comfort soon and would like to wish him all the happiness for the coming days. "Everything's going to be OK," she told him. As a result, Fox spent nearly eight months in prison on a capital murder charge before being exonerated by DNA evidence. 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. A statement by Kevin himself saying he had been tricked into confessing was posted on a Web site three days after the interrogation. 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. He planned to drive the kids to Chicago in the morning to catch Melissa at the finish line. 21244 W Highway 113 Rte #113, Wilmington, IL 60481. Christmas passed with Kevin still in jail, then New Year's, and Kevin's 28th birthday on January 4th. "I felt helpless and frustrated.". 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. 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. Until now, the Foxes have remained silent about their ordeal. The men, the family learned, were Will County detectives. 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. According to that report, Tyler became much more specific and descriptive. He has also, on matters unrelated to the case, been in error in at least 13 instances, according to the Fox suit. Finally, after more than an hour of interrogation, Pluth reaches for a box of tissues and thrusts it at Tyler. When it was over, Williams told Kevin that he had failed. The aftershocks of his arrest, however, reverberate in the form of a lawsuit he and his wife have brought against Will County authorities. Kevin even attached a cart to his bicycle, and Riley quickly adopted it as her favorite mode of travel. Riley Fox was sexually assaulted, bound with duct tape, and drowned in a creek in Wilmington, Illinois. "He watched everybody search for his child the whole day," one woman, a ten-year resident of Wilmington, told the Chicago Sun-Times. "He changed more diapers and fed and bathed the kids way more than the average father.". After all, the boy could be crucial in helping the parents find their daughter's killer. Chad was on the phone to his father, desperately urging Kevin and Melissa to leave. "I didn't know what had happened to her," he says. By the afternoon, more than 500 people were scouring the area, some on horseback, others on bicycles or all-terrain vehicles. He'd barely had time to grab a bite to eat all day. Carmel Cemetery in Morris at a later date. 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. The murder of his daughter remains unsolved. With the case against Kevin collapsing, the new Will County State's Attorney Jim Glasgow held an immediate court hearing. "In a way, though, it's hard," Kevin admits. 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. To the people who knew Kevin Fox, the hearing seemed unreal. 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. . I can help this kid if he acts now," the detective quoted the state's attorney as saying. The collection of friends, family, reporters, and onlookers watched as Kevin Fox, red-eyed and shell-shocked, shuffled into the courtroom. "I guess we were going out on a limb, but it turned out she was the one.". But the parents believed they had cooperated in every way possible, including providing DNA samples, consenting to searches, and answering questions. Still, he says, "we had waited so long. "I'm not saying he shouldn't have been . The FBI would be returning the DNA evidence within a week, he said. A steady drizzle fell, while inside, mourners wept to a slide-show collage set to the songs "My Girl" and Sarah McLachlan's "Angel." "I swear to God I didn't do it." 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. ", Kevin's account of the interrogation continues: Swearengen burst into the room, out of breath and saying he had just talked to Tomczak. "That door was paper thin," Zellner says. 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. 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