Chad recalls the moment vividly: "Kevin looked at me and said, I didn't do this. For Tomczak it could also provide a diversion from a new headache that had suddenly surfaced. 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. Like their father before them, Kevin and his older brother, Chad, were born here, rode their bikes here, fished here and graduated from the town's only high school. (Lyons did not return calls seeking comment.). 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 "Any charges of politics are baseless," Tomczak said in a statement the day after Fox's arrest. Kenneth J. In hindsight, the couple believe that either the police "were just completely overwhelmed by the fact that there was a murder in Wilmington and they had no idea what to do," Melissa says, "-or they were watching to see how we would react." Many other people assumed he was guilty. The Fox family had called Wilmington home for generations. 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. Now he was free. Check Background Get Contact . Melissa, describing her husband as a wonderful father, made it clear immediately that she believed he had been railroaded. 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. By midnight that night, Kevin says, the detectives had dropped all pretense of friendliness. Kevin was shocked beyond words when the police recovered Rileys body but tried his best to assist in the investigation. The results did not match, and hence after eight months of being imprisoned, Kevin was finally let go. According to the sheriff's summary, this is what he said: He came home at about 1:30 a.m., ate a snack, and then watched television, including an adult video. Par for the course. 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." While Chad talked about leaving for the big city, Kevin couldn't imagine living anywhere else. 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. Kevin likes to keep his private life under wraps, and hence his present whereabouts are unclear. 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." 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. ", Kevin's account of the interrogation continues: Swearengen burst into the room, out of breath and saying he had just talked to Tomczak. 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. "I thought it was a little strange," Melissa says. Still, he says, "we had waited so long. The Fox 8 Meteorologist gave birth to a son in 2017 alongside her husband Ryan. One study suggests that, though rare, it happens. He quit school and the two moved in together. The suit claimed. . God Bless and stay safe. The few clues that might have pointed to other suspects were either discounted or ignored. WILMINGTONRoger J. Johnson, 62, of Wilmington, passed away Sunday, Feb. 26, 2023 at his home. 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. Mass of Christian Burial 10:30 a.m. Interment private. Back to Top. But if Kevin was joking, the police apparently didn't get it. But we feel closer to her when we go there. Instead, she marched up the marble stairs and past the groom. 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. 1:07. Glasgow seemed like a fair man, but he had given no indication that he planned to drop charges against Kevin. "But she was right.". Zellner insists that there was exculpatory evidence-in the so-called rape kits with material taken from Riley. Join Facebook to connect with Kevin Fox and others you may know. The judge ordered that the genetic material be sent right away. 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. 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. The detective shook his head. Kevin and Melissa met while in high school together, and they quickly took to each other and fell in love. At last, eight days later, Zellner stood near a fax machine in Glasgow's office. The relationship evolved quickly and, just after Kevin started college at Illinois State University, Melissa, then 18, became pregnant with Tyler. "They'd come back with their legs scratched up and bleeding," recalls Kevin. On October 11th, a report by Amy Jacobson, the tall blond reporter from Chicago's NBC 5, gave voice to the whispers. If charges were to be filed, he would be the one to bring them. 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. Many of them questioned the confession. The Foxes owned a dark blue Ford Escape. Chad and Zellner viewed the change in office with a wary eye. "In a way, though, it's hard," Kevin admits. The original detectives on the murder have been reassigned, the former state's attorney is now in private practice, and the little town where it occurred has suffered a loss of innocence, as well as wounds to its pride that may take years to heal. For the briefest of moments, "they were making me question myself. The couple had gone gambling in Las Vegas. Their lenses, the family later learned, were trained not on the ceremony, or the casket, but on the mourners, including Kevin Fox. He locked the front door and retired to his room. On a recent April evening, however, their attentions are devoted to gentler undertakings: their new baby girl, Teagan, who was born on March 8th. "We felt like we were finally going to find out what had happened," Kevin says. Disappearance [ edit] "There was nothing to eliminate him." After three hours alone, Melissa grew furious. "I've had other families come in a situation like this and they've had some hesitancy-Well, he's always been kind of troubled but I don't think he'd do anything violent.' "Hurry back. They tricked me.' 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. "I'm not saying he shouldn't have been . 3-year-old Riley Fox was found inside a creek a little distance away from her home in Wilmington, Illinois. 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. The original defendants included Will County detectives Hayes, Swearengen, Guilfoyle, Ruettiger, and two others. And he had no idea how his car wound up on a security tape. "I don't know," Tyler says. As Glasgow spoke, Kevin began to weep. Rebekah grew up in the Midwest and received her Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Communications and Theater from North . Melissa, meanwhile, was led into a conference room where, Swearengen told her, detective Guilfoyle would be along shortly to ask a few questions. The ex-husband of Melissa Fox and father to Riley and Tyler, Kevin Fox was a well-respected and much-loved member of the community. Meanwhile, the mystery of what happened to Riley Fox remains. If he slipped in the mud, why were his clothes not muddy? "And you'd have to have hit her on the head with a hammer to get the effect" Kevin described in the interrogation. "I didn't know what had happened to her," he says. 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. But the case that had shattered the Wilmington community was far from over. 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. "We'd ask, but they'd always say something like We can't really discuss it.'" "He kept saying, The DNA will clear me,'" Chad says. Some people still thought he was a murderer. It was one of the first times she had spent the night away from the kids, but for her, it was a worthy venture-a way to honor her late father. The next day, Kevin Fox's DNA was compared with the sample. Kevin's knees buckled. At one point, he asks for his "mommy and daddy." Around 2:15, he went to the bathroom and swung the door open quickly, striking Riley and knocking her down. 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? the cops, the judge, the seeming confidence of the state's attorney, and, most of all, the confession. The case has set in motion a series of events that bitterly divided what had been a neighborly town; cast a shadow of suspicion over a tight-knit, well-respected family; and raised questions about whether justice was forsaken for personal and political ambitions. The collection of friends, family, reporters, and onlookers watched as Kevin Fox, red-eyed and shell-shocked, shuffled into the courtroom. By most accounts, Kevin Dale Fox was a devoutly religious man and a loving father. This was our daughter, our little girl. They simply broke him down psychologically to a point where he believed that the only way he was going to get this nightmare to stop was to confess. 2 bds; 1 ba; 1,000 sqft - Active. Why would Tyler say Kevin had walked out during the night with Riley? she thought. Bad blood had existed between the men for years. He also holds a journalism master's and . The boy, who is extremely shy with strangers, answers reluctantly, with head shakes and nods. Unfortunately, however, their world turned upside down on the fateful date of June 6, 2004. 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. "Riley is in the room with you right now," the lawsuit quotes Guilfoyle as saying. With the possibility of a trial, Zellner began to reinvestigate the case. We thought, This is the night. We've got to get this to the laboratory so that we can process it quickly.'" To the people who knew Kevin Fox, the hearing seemed unreal. The claim triggered an investigation from a representative of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. And that she did not have. As for Tyler, Kevin had no idea his son had made such a statement-it was the first he'd heard of it. Why was no duct tape found? 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. "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. When he first noticed Riley missing, he did not want to worry unnecessarily. The Tribune reported last year that while the FBI had paid $10,000 to Trisha Kiefer, Eby's former girlfriend, for her help in solving one of the Chicago region's most notorious crimes, the Fox . Chad Fox took the lead, assuming the role of family spokesman and coordinating other family interviews, including an unequivocal expression of support by Melissa. (Tomczak later accused Kevin of lying during his confession-concocting the story of the bathroom door to hide his guilt in molesting Riley.) Kevin had been up since 4:30 that morning and had spent much of his day working at a painting job. May 7, 2021 3-year-old Riley Fox was found inside a creek a little distance away from her home in Wilmington, Illinois. But early Sunday morning, Tyler woke up Kevin to tell him that Riley was missing. Tickets to see Kevin James perform in Joliet at the Rialto Square Theatre go on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. . Still, Pluth pursues her questioning. Did he take Riley somewhere?" Find a suspect, any suspect, and nail him/her. One detective, Scott Swearengen, played toss with Tyler and often dropped by for coffee at Curt and Dawn's house, where Kevin and Melissa had moved after Riley's murder. "Everything that [detectives] had was still pointing to this guy," says Will County Sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry. 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. Joyful Fox Danced Over DNA News; . Hayes made Kevin watch as he filled out an arrest sheet for first-degree murder. Hope they find some peace. (Through his attorney, Gerald Haberkorn, Hayes denied any allegations of impropriety. 2023 Cinemaholic Inc. All rights reserved. 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. 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.". She phoned a forensic scientist, who explained what that meant: the state crime lab simply didn't have the sophisticated capabilities that would be needed to test properly for the substance. Zellner is such a bad ass!!! Sensing his shyness, she took matters into her own hands. ", Kevin alerted his parents and Chad, who was immediately wary. . Next. TueWedThuFriSat. "Something didn't feel right," Chad recalls. After Champagne and pizza at Zellner's office, Kevin, Melissa, and Tyler spent the evening at Chad and Stacy's apartment in Chicago, safely away from the media. . Tomczak, 44 at the time, had earned his law degree in Chicago, but settled in Will County with his wife, who today is a judge there. 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