We thought, This is the night. 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. "It's now or never," the lawsuit claims the detective said. Kevin Fox was eventually released, and the case against him was dismissed. She screamed when she realized what she had found. The next day, Kevin Fox's DNA was compared with the sample. Among the questions the two men fielded were queries about whether politics influenced the timing of the interrogation. Suddenly, at about three that afternoon, police jumped in their cars and sped off. The two had clashed on nearly everything, from elections to court cases to ethical conduct. I had never been treated like that before. After three hours alone, Melissa grew furious. The murder of his daughter remains unsolved. 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. "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. While much of his work there involved coverage of the Bush Administration as a member of . associates & neighbors include Melissa Rossi, Curtis Fox, Kevin Fox, Chad Fox and Carly Fox. the cops, the judge, the seeming confidence of the state's attorney, and, most of all, the confession. "People would walk by my cell and sit in front and look at me," he says. 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. ', "I started shaking and crying," she says. Maryland Man Arrested After Crashing Stolen Vehicle. While Chad talked about leaving for the big city, Kevin couldn't imagine living anywhere else. None was available. He took his friend and Melissas brother along while leaving the children in the care of Melissas mother. He had been moved to protective custody, but that didn't protect him from threats on his life and threats of being raped. Zellner also re-examined the bathroom door that had supposedly hit Riley. Kevin told police that Riley was wearing a white T-shirt with a pink flamingo on it and pink capri pants. 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 . "Say it was an accident. Who would admit to such horrible things if he hadn't really done them? Ke 11 Share Glasgow seemed like a fair man, but he had given no indication that he planned to drop charges against Kevin. Promising a suspect leniency to confess is forbidden under Illinois law, and the detectives have denied in court pleadings that they did so. Suddenly, she says, Ed Hayes "got right in my face. 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. Respect! Twitter Lhamo. Even though the court paid Kevin and his wife $15.5 million (later reduced to $8.5 million) as compensation for the ordeal, Kevin said he could never recover his reputation in the town. "If someone was abusing my child, I would have known about it. By now, hundreds of townsfolk were clawing through brush and woods. Did he know his car had been spotted passing the Mobil station at four in the morning? For a long time, the family could not bear to look at photos of Chad's wedding, of Kevin in his tuxedo with the single red rose, of Riley and Tyler sleeping under the table. They describe a codified series of emotional and intellectual manipulations designed to break down even the strongest of personalities. The Rossi family had moved to Wilmington when Melissa was in the third grade. 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. But if he could get out on bond, he could straighten this mess out. When the bag was thrown from the bridge, however, it twice floated to the spot where the body had been found. Why would Tyler say Kevin had walked out during the night with Riley? If you say it was an accident, it's involuntary manslaughter with a three to five year sentence. The girl's body lay in a small polished white casket with stainless steel handles. Some people still thought he was a murderer. 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. . Most of those who knew Kevin and the rest of the Fox family believed in his innocence. "He is an amazing dad, I tell you what," says his mother, Dawn. The only reason I go back now is to visit Riley's stone.". When Judge Dan Rozak dismissed the case, the courtroom exploded into applause and cheering. ", The town of Wilmington, struggling to heal, tends a small garden that honors Riley's memory. "I swear to God I didn't do it." The aftershocks of his arrest, however, reverberate in the form of a lawsuit he and his wife have brought against Will County authorities. By the afternoon, more than 500 people were scouring the area, some on horseback, others on bicycles or all-terrain vehicles. The timing was less than ideal for the couple. She'd be a great big sister.". The couple had gone gambling in Las Vegas. 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. Even though Kevin was freed of all charges, he claimed that the false imprisonment had a massive impact on his life. Tickets to see Kevin James perform in Joliet at the Rialto Square Theatre go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. . Did he take Riley somewhere?" "Let the little children come to me," said the Rev. 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). View Source Share Save to Suggest Edits Memorial Photos Flowers Memorials Region North America USA Illinois 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. Back to Top. ", And yet, "I'm sitting there thinking there's videotape of the car," she says. The next day, an article and editorial in the local paper, The Free Press Advocate, excoriated Jacobson and NBC 5 and told the family's account: Melissa had traded in the car because she couldn't bear how it reminded her of trips around town with Riley. As if the image wasn't terrible enough, he said, she had been "able to remove the duct tape from her wrists prior to succumbing to drowning in the water.". More than 6,000 people attended the wake-nearly 1,000 more than the entire population of Wilmington. Why can't I see my husband!'" Kevin was shocked beyond words when the police recovered Rileys body but tried his best to assist in the investigation. ", The people of Wilmington seemed to divide into two camps. After Kevin graduated high school and entered college, Melissa got pregnant with their first child Tyler. I looked at him square in the eyes the whole time, and I knew my brother was not lying to me. Meanwhile, the mystery of what happened to Riley Fox remains. At 8:32 a.m., detectives turned on the video camera and began to tape Kevin's statement. They urged Kevin to hire an attorney. Melissa was seen getting a fancy haircut at the mall. 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. Many other people assumed he was guilty. Par for the course. ", Kevin began to pound the walls. ", Shortly after the bond hearing, Tomczak, Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas, and other authorities held a press conference outside the Wilmington police station. "They made me sit in a room for 45 minutes," Melissa says, still furious at the memory. 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 Eighteen of those children were stolen from the home. Melissa knew by their faces that the news was grim. 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. Five months after the murder, the police claimed that Kevin had confessed to Rileys murder. Still, both wept when they learned Melissa was carrying a girl. When it was over, Williams told Kevin that he had failed. I can help this kid if he acts now," the detective quoted the state's attorney as saying. As a result, Fox spent nearly eight months in prison on a capital murder charge before being exonerated by DNA evidence. "Something didn't feel right," Chad recalls. "I didn't know what had happened to her," he says. As for the murder of Riley, "You did it," the lawsuit quotes Williams as saying. When pressed, however, the boy seemed less sure. 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. This gruesome detail helped form the basis for the death penalty charge. Kevin Wayne Fox, 52, of Bunker Hill, WV, passed away December 18, 2020. No sign of her. Delaware State Police have arrested 26-year-old Damiean Turner of East New Market, Maryland, for firearm and traffic-related offenses. . 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. The Las Vegas trip was to attend a friend's wedding and had been planned and paid for months before Riley's death. Little did he know that a few hours later, he would be waking up to the worst nightmare of his life and that his beloved daughter would be taken away from him forever. Spend a night with my wife and son," Kevin Fox said after being released. He recanted almost immediately, but spent eight months in jail before DNA evidence led to his release. Wilmington, Illinois, just south of Joliet, stands amid the vast cornfields and high grass prairies of the Kankakee River valley, a little more than 50 miles southwest of Chicago. He wore a red jump suit and was shackled at the legs and hands. (Pluth did not return calls or an e-mail message.). He immediately noticed that the front door and screen were ajar. '", At this point, Melissa says, she knew something wasn't right. Yet, despite the overwhelming implication of guilt produced by the hearing, a number of troubling questions lurked within the prosecutor's case. In that summer of Riley's disappearance, the men were again locked in a tight race against each other in a campaign that, the Chicago Tribune said, "was bound to get ugly" given the men's history. 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. Within minutes, Melissa and a friend were barreling down Interstate 55. "Any charges of politics are baseless," Tomczak said in a statement the day after Fox's arrest. Buoyed over the finding, Zellner secured a court order to have the material tested by a private lab-Bode Technology Group in Virginia. The only way to dissuade them, he says they told him, would be to take a polygraph test. "Riley is in the room with you right now," the lawsuit quotes Guilfoyle as saying. On the outside, the stress of trying to free Kevin weighed heavily on the Fox family, especially Chad. "Everything's going to be OK," she told him. Bewildered and frightened, Kevin and Melissa prayed that the sudden departure was less ominous than it looked. Weather forecast Wilmington, North Carolina . The Will County sheriff seems content to blame former Will County state's attorney Jeff Tomczak for any missteps. In his 2007 budget, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich included a similar initiative that would add eight forensic scientists to the state's crime labs. On October 26th, Swearengen called Kevin Fox to say, by Kevin's account, that there was news about the case and that the Foxes should come to the police station that night. The girl appeared "lifeless," and Kevin thought she was dead. 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. Read More Business Details. Nonetheless, since Kevin's release, a fresh group of investigators has taken over the case, though nothing promising has turned up. Among the allegations was that the father had made illegal contributions to his son's campaign. Kevin says Swearengen's tone changed abruptly. People wonder: who would do it? Find out where to go, what to eat, where to live, and more. Guilfoyle reported that Tyler claimed he stood in the kitchen and saw his father using the clothes dryer after he returned. "It's all right to say you did it." 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. She adored her father. "She didn't make it. Mark M. 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