"Rape kits"-samples of DNA collected from Riley's body-were sent to the Illinois State Police crime lab for analysis. Go home now on bond.". 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. Almost immediately after his arrest, Kevin and Melissa brought this multi-count, multi-party lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. The interrogation and arrest of Fox, the suit alleges, was part of a last-ditch effort by Tomczak to win re-election. "That night she asked me to her homecoming," Kevin recalls with a laugh. But Kevin knew he was meant to be with Melissa. "Let the little children come to me," said the Rev. Grey Fox Wealth is an independent fiduciary that provides comprehensive financial planning services, wealth management solutions, and direct access . A few years later, Kevin and Melissa became proud parents of baby Riley, and the family seemed to be quite happy. Instead, Guilfoyle later wrote up a summary of the interview. They urged Kevin to hire an attorney. Kevin Fox and his family paid little attention to the politics of the race. "I didn't know what had happened to her," he says. In his 2007 budget, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich included a similar initiative that would add eight forensic scientists to the state's crime labs. Again, this was the first he'd heard of it. I told him, Don't you talk like that about my husband and family.'" Another resident told the paper, "It's what a lot of people suspected.". On October 11th, a report by Amy Jacobson, the tall blond reporter from Chicago's NBC 5, gave voice to the whispers. His little girl had seemed to hold a special place in his heart. "Your family doesn't love you," he shouted. A search for the young girl began. He then went home and slept," the prosecutor said. "I was raised with the idea that authorities were good people and that they should be respected.". Why would a father with CPR training make no attempt to revive his daughter? Then, on June 7th, came the answer. A federal jury awarded Fox and his wife, Melissa, $15.5 million for false arrest and. "Riley is in the room with you right now," the lawsuit quotes Guilfoyle as saying. The FBI would be returning the DNA evidence within a week, he said. Greater Philadelphia. They tricked me.' 2 bds; 1 ba; 1,000 sqft - Active. 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. Promising a suspect leniency to confess is forbidden under Illinois law, and the detectives have denied in court pleadings that they did so. Instead, going on a "gut feeling," he said, they "rolled bones" in the hope they could elicit a confession. Even so, as time passed and word spread that Riley Fox was missing, a search was mounted. I hated that, but I had no idea what to believe. "I guess we were going out on a limb, but it turned out she was the one.". Melissa Mack (right) with her husband Ryan and newborn baby Jett Myers "So when you send something to the lab, you monitor it," the Tribune quoted Glasgow as saying. A break in the case could well tip the scales. Kevin and Melissa were high school sweethearts, and through they fell out for a bit after Melissa got pregnant for the first time, they soon moved in together and gave birth to a beautiful boy, Tyler. In preparation for the possible interrogation, the detectives contacted several polygraph experts, including Fred Hunter, a Hinsdale-based examiner with more than 30,000 tests under his belt. But the parents believed they had cooperated in every way possible, including providing DNA samples, consenting to searches, and answering questions. "My niece was kidnapped and murdered from her own home," he said, "-no answers from the cops for months, a deliberate railroading of my brother, my family nearly falls apart because of the sadness and stress, the terrible perception by the public of us defending Kevin. Melissa, describing her husband as a wonderful father, made it clear immediately that she believed he had been railroaded. Why was no duct tape found? Kevin, on the other hand, claimed that the police coerced him into admitting guilt. Williams told Kevin that if he passed he would be cleared in his daughter's death, according to the lawsuit; if he failed, he would be charged with murder. The family sued the state and won $15 million, which later was reduced to $8.5 million. Eighteen of those children were stolen from the home. It had all happened so quickly-had seemed to make so much sense in the moment. But if Kevin was joking, the police apparently didn't get it. The Kevin Fox they knew was a wonderful father, devoted to his wife and son and daughter. In the weeks that followed, Melissa and Kevin found the investigators to be supportive, even friendly. . He drove to a bridge over Forsythe Creek and then carried the girl down a muddy bank, slipping on the way down. "If I finish the sheet, you are being charged with first-degree murder with 30 years to life. 21244 W Highway 113 Rte #113, Wilmington, IL 60481. In late June, Kevin and Melissa consented to letting the authorities question Tyler. Trying not to panic, Kevin searched the house. When Judge Dan Rozak dismissed the case, the courtroom exploded into applause and cheering. "They made me sit in a room for 45 minutes," Melissa says, still furious at the memory. Five months later, a gallery of stunned observers packed the hearing at the Will County Courthouse in Joliet. 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. He began having nightmares in which he would see Kevin strapped to a gurney, about to receive a lethal injection. . You're put into a cramped room and subjected to an unusually long interrogation. Also, Tomczak alleged during Kevin's initial hearing that "the autopsy report indicated [Riley] was alive and struggling when placed in the water." Melissa got the word when she called Kevin to arrange to meet the family at the finish line. And what were the circumstances of the "confession"? ", They were greeted at the door by Swearengen. "He changed more diapers and fed and bathed the kids way more than the average father.". High 24F. But if he could get out on bond, he could straighten this mess out. . His little chest heaves and his thin shoulders shake. "We really tried to stay the course," he told reporters. On April 5th, Zellner says, she learned why. Beyond the walls of the sheriff's building dawn was arriving. 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. "The state's attorney's office at that point needs to get involved and say, Wait a minute. At the time, it seemed like a happy though standard family portrait. "We'd ask, but they'd always say something like We can't really discuss it.'" 79/63F. He still holds Riley close to his heart and cherishes the beautiful memories his daughter left him with. Kevin again refused. Zellner also re-examined the bathroom door that had supposedly hit Riley. With the death of a child under these circumstances, the police look first to the family. Did he take Riley somewhere?" He was born October 8, 1968 in Silver Spring, Maryland, the son of Helen (Niles) Fox and the late Allen Wayne Fox.. On Feb. 9, the Wilmington City Council held a special meeting at Wilmington High School. He yelled, Your fucking husband killed your fucking daughter and he doesn't love you or her. Zellner is such a bad ass!!! 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. He also holds a journalism master's and . She had been following the case in the media, and she urged Chad to get his brother to talk to her. Zellner returned to her office facing the daunting prospect of going to trial with a client who had confessed. Local 630-955-1212 | Toll . When you see your daughter dead, with dirt and mud on her face . "I kept saying, What's going on? Chad recalls the moment vividly: "Kevin looked at me and said, I didn't do this. ", In the sorrow-filled twilight of their little girl's death, in the aftermath of an ordeal that could have sent Kevin Fox to death row, Kevin and Melissa have searched for meaning in their anguish. Winds light and variable.. MLS ID #11685368, PRO REAL ESTATE. Most important, Kevin says, he trusted the detectives' motives. Select the best result to find their address, phone number, relatives, and public records. Months went by with no breaks in the case. she quotes him as saying. Rather than providing a running narrative, she says, Kevin often simply answered "yes" or "no" to the detectives' questions. (Pluth did not return calls or an e-mail message.). He left Tyler and Riley with Melissa's mother, Sandy Rossi. Delaware State Police have arrested 26-year-old Damiean Turner of East New Market, Maryland, for firearm and traffic-related offenses. Twitter Lhamo. Thus, he contacted the police on the non-emergency phone line (an action that would later raise suspicion against him). The girl was kidnapped from. 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. 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. Best MatchPowered by Whitepages Premium Best MatchPowered by Whitepages Premium Best Match Kevin Edward Fox Morrilton, AR (previously lived in Wilmington, IL) AGE 40s AGE 40s Kevin Edward Fox Sun and clouds mixed. Par for the course. "Everything that [detectives] had was still pointing to this guy," says Will County Sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry. 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. More than six months later, DCFS reported finding no evidence to support the allegation. He grabbed the back of Kevin's shirt and pulled his face close. "Because I think to myself what Riley would be doing right now. "Any charges of politics are baseless," Tomczak said in a statement the day after Fox's arrest. "And you'd have to have hit her on the head with a hammer to get the effect" Kevin described in the interrogation. (The DNA was subsequently retested at a different laboratory, and the results again excluded Kevin.). But after briefly talking to one lawyer, Kevin dismissed the idea. What neither Zellner nor Glasgow apparently realized was that the FBI had not tested Riley's DNA. ", Kevin's account of the interrogation continues: Swearengen burst into the room, out of breath and saying he had just talked to Tomczak. It put stress on the couple, and soon, they separated with Melissa moving out with both children. Are you kidding me?" Find out where to go, what to eat, where to live, and more. 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. "We were not happy about [Fox's release]," says Pat Barry, spokesman for the Will County Sheriff's Office. Meanwhile, Tomczak and Glasgow were said to be running neck and neck in the state's attorney's race. "I hated leaving him there," Chad says. "What's happened?" 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. The questions quickly shift to what Kevin did or didn't do that night. Join Facebook to connect with Kevin Fox and others you may know. Suddenly, at about three that afternoon, police jumped in their cars and sped off. Since the prelude to Kevin's confession was not videotaped-a law requiring interrogations be videotaped would not go into effect for several more months-the purported promise pits detectives' word against Kevin's. The Las Vegas trip was to attend a friend's wedding and had been planned and paid for months before Riley's death. 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. A Chicago news show had even aired a resident of Wilmington relating the town gossip. When Zellner told Chad, the older brother laid his head down on a table and wept. At 8:32 a.m., detectives turned on the video camera and began to tape Kevin's statement. She wore a flamingo decorated T-shirt, dirtied now by mud and silt. "If you saw one, generally the other was right behind," Curt Fox says. They describe a codified series of emotional and intellectual manipulations designed to break down even the strongest of personalities. But if he felt out of place as the ceremony began, his discomfort melted at the sight of his two children now making their way down the aisle. When Kevin returned to his home in Wilmington, Illinois, around 1am on June 6, 2004, after picking up his children from their grandmother's home, he was exhausted. "It's all right to say you did it." He recalled that his father "took Riley somewhere" during the night. Kevin Corke is an American journalist born on 6 February. She put her hand on Kevin's leg. According to court documents about the case, Kevin Fox's wife Melissa was in Chicago for a two-day breast cancer research walk and he had gone out on the evening of June 5, 2004, with his. He wore a red jump suit and was shackled at the legs and hands. ", The people of Wilmington seemed to divide into two camps. Respect! Later, however, he would reflect on the bittersweet nature of the day. The lab had said the results would arrive around 6 p.m. By the afternoon, more than 500 people were scouring the area, some on horseback, others on bicycles or all-terrain vehicles. In the cold, shallow, murky water of Forked Creek, Riley's body floated, face-down. The boy, who is extremely shy with strangers, answers reluctantly, with head shakes and nods. Did he know his car had been spotted passing the Mobil station at four in the morning? 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. They later portrayed his statement as an attempt to provide a possible alibi. Rebekah grew up in the Midwest and received her Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Communications and Theater from North . The couple had gone gambling in Las Vegas. Spend a night with my wife and son," Kevin Fox said after being released. She'd be a great big sister.". ", Kevin alerted his parents and Chad, who was immediately wary. With his help, an investigative team began to re-enact each element of Kevin's statement to test it for plausibility. "I had never even met him before and he was just screaming in my face. Five months after the murder, the police claimed that Kevin had confessed to Rileys murder. And that she did not have. . He had suffered threats and the ridicule of guards, according to his lawsuit. but we firmly believe, and the sheriff firmly believes, that [the detectives] did a good job . he asks. Sensing his shyness, she took matters into her own hands. "Riley's gone," the boy said. Kevin likes to keep his private life under wraps, and hence his present whereabouts are unclear. A little before eight in the morning, however, Tyler came into Kevin's room. Police have tested the DNA found in Riley against every male in the Fox family, as well as numerous people in the neighborhood, including several previously convicted sex offenders, with no luck. Zellner also began looking into an element that seemed to have been forgotten: the DNA evidence taken from Riley. (Lyons did not return calls seeking comment.). 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 was seen getting a fancy haircut at the mall. Bad blood had existed between the men for years. (Williams refused to comment because of the pending litigation. Some questioned why a reward had never been offered. 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. The terms of the "offer" echoed in his head. It's your turn to follow in my footsteps.". 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. "You're overcome by grief. "If someone was abusing my child, I would have known about it. Harder still was the family portrait with Riley in her princess dress and white satin slippers. For the briefest of moments, "they were making me question myself. "And wondering, Why would they lie to me?" ." "He said, I can't find Riley.' "You look at a stone with your daughter's picture, knowing that her body is in the dirt rather than in your arms. "It's now or never," the lawsuit claims the detective said. The girl appeared "lifeless," and Kevin thought she was dead. Months. He says the police told him he was right not to panic, that "in a lot of cases a child wanders off, and they can't find them at first." At one point, Chad received a call from a friend watching the Cubs game. For the first time publicly, Kevin and his wife, Melissa, talk about their ordeal, an account of pain, mystery, and undying faith, wrapped around an enduring tragedy. 31 Largemouth Ln, Wilmington, IL 60481. . Case closed. 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. the cops, the judge, the seeming confidence of the state's attorney, and, most of all, the confession. From 1997 to 1999, more than 50,000 children in the United States were abducted by persons other than family members, according to a 2002 study funded by the U.S. Department of Justice. The person behind the mixup, the lawsuit alleges, was Ed Hayes. 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