Unsolved Murder of Riley Fox, age 3, June 6, 2004 Wilmington, IL

[annalyzer]

No answers 5 years after Riley's murder


http://media1.suburbanchicagonews.com/multimedia/jo06_rileyfox_p2.jpg_20090605_20_35_40_664-100-165.imageContent
The Wilmington grave site (right) of 3-year-old Riley Fox (left) who was found murdered June 6, 2004. Her murder is still unsolved.

June 6, 2009
By KIM SMITH ksmith@scn1.com

WILMINGTON — The plaque of an engraved angel with the words "May you find comfort in the arms of an angel" is the only remnant left on the bridge over Forked Creek on Kahler Road. The bridge is believed to be the spot where the body of Riley Fox, 3, was tossed into the water below.

It has been five long years since the toddler was reported missing around 8 a.m. Sunday, June 6, 2004. Her body was found in the creek, and plaques, dolls and flowers soon lined both sides of the bridge.

On Friday, children could be found playing in the Children's Memorial Garden created in the wake of Riley's death and the death of Jacob Lamb, a 5-year-old who drowned in the family's pool a few weeks after Riley's slaying.

"We have to keep remembering; we have to find who really did this," said a young mother at the park who did not want her name to be printed.

She spoke of how residents in the Northcrest subdivision, where the Fox family lived, never locked their doors and allowed their children to play unsupervised outside — before Riley's death.

"Everything changed that day," she said.

Father charged, released

Kevin Fox reported his daughter missing that Sunday, and family tracked down his wife, Melissa Fox, who was in Chicago participating in the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.

Hundreds gathered to look for the missing child. Her body was found hours later by a pair of hikers, around 3 p.m., in the creek in the Forsythe Woods Forest Preserve, about four miles away from the family's home.

On Oct. 27, 2004, almost five months after Riley's death, Will County Sheriff Paul Kaupas called Kevin Fox in for what he called an interview and others referred to as a seven-hour interrogation held overnight. The father was charged with the murder and sexual assault of Riley Fox.

Kevin Fox spent 200 days locked up in the Will County jail before charges were dropped because DNA evidence failed to link him to the crime.

Later, Kevin and Melissa Fox won a civil suit when the jury agreed Kevin Fox was falsely arrested, maliciously prosecuted and that the Will County deputies involved in the case intentionally inflicted emotional distress upon the couple.

Earlier this year, a judge agreed to seal the record of Kevin Fox's arrest in the murder case.

Still searching

Today, there are still a handful of posters scattered about town seeking information leading to the arrest of Riley Fox's killer. A Web site, www.justiceforriley.com, offers a reward of $100,000 for tips leading to the conviction of the person who killed Riley.

"It was a huge struggle, trying to cope with losing our daughter and knowing that Kevin has been wrongfully accused of this crime," Kevin and Melissa Fox wrote in a letter posted on the Web site."We had to go through some extremely hard times without each other, but we always believed the truth would come out and it has. Now that we have the killer's genetic identity, we must find this monster."

Anyone with any information can call 800-344-6340.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/1609519,Riley-Fox-murder-5-years-JO060609.article

[annalyzer]

DNA clears dad in girl's slaying
Father jailed 8 months in 3-year-old's death

http://truthinjustice.org/Kevin-Riley-Fox.jpg

Chicago Tribune By Deborah Horan, Jo Napolitano and John Biemer
June 18, 2005

After nearly eight months in jail, a Will County man who police said had confessed on videotape to the June 2004 murder and sexual assault of his 3-year-old daughter was set free Friday, after DNA tests failed to link him to the crime.

Kevin Fox walked out of jail and into a knot of cheering, sobbing relatives and friends after a brief court hearing at which prosecutors said they no longer had enough evidence to hold Fox for the slaying of his daughter, Riley.

The DNA testing of evidence resulted in an "absolute exclusion of Kevin Fox as a donor," State's Atty. James Glasgow told the judge.

A short time later, a tearful but smiling Fox emerged from jail. He walked with an arm around his wife, Melissa, and 7-year-old son, Tyler, at his side. He was also accompanied by his lawyers, Kathleen Zellner and Paul DeLuca.

He said he was eager to spend the night with his family in his own home. "I dreamed of that every night, every single night," he said. "Finally, it's here."

Fox turned aside questions about the videotaped confession at the heart of the case, saying "it was a nightmare and I don't want to relive it right now."

But later, in an interview with the Tribune, he said he was "fed lies and threats the entire time." His wife, who stood by him through his arrest and time in jail, said that when she was questioned "they messed with my mind so much in what little time they had so I couldn't even imagine what they did" with him.

Fox's release sidetracked a case that was contentious from the start, and one that whipsawed the emotions of residents in the tiny community of Wilmington where it occurred. Faced with the disappearance of a child, they gathered together to search for her and mourned on learning she had been slain.

Then, they were forced to come to grips with the idea one of their own had committed the crime. Now, a year after it all began, they are confronted with a new set of facts: that authorities erred when they charged Fox with the slaying.

The case also focused renewed attention on the issue of false confessions, one that has plagued the criminal justice system in Illinois. The Fox case appears to be the second in which a videotaped confession proved false.

In January 2002, Cook County prosecutors dismissed the murder case against Corethian Bell after DNA undermined a videotaped confession that he had killed his mother. Like Fox, Bell said police coerced him to confess. He spent 17 months in jail before he was released.

Though DNA cleared Bell and connected another man to his mother's slaying, police said they have no suspects in the Fox case. Glasgow stopped short of saying Fox was innocent, and said he could not explain why he confessed.

"Numerous confessions are made without coercion," he said.

In court, the case was marked by contentiousness, as Zellner took an aggressive tack to fight the charges. She criticized investigators for botching the investigation and took the unusual step of filing a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Will County sheriff's office and several detectives, alleging that they had coerced Fox's confession.

Zellner also investigated the case on Fox's behalf in an effort to develop other suspects, and she sought the DNA tests that led to Fox's release. She alleged sheriff's investigators and prosecutors had rushed to judgment in the case, relying on the confession without waiting for the tests.

"The ultimate thing to learn is, do the tests before you make the arrest," Zellner quipped after the hearing at which the charges were dropped.

Even after evidence was sent to the FBI's lab at Quantico, Va., Zellner charged that sheriff's officials told the agency not to pursue the testing. A report from the FBI lab indicates that a sheriff's officer told FBI analysts in early November to stop testing.

"Once they got a confession, they told them to stop the testing," Zellner said. "There's absolutely no excuse for not having those tested."

The decision to release Fox followed a meeting Thursday evening between Glasgow and Zellner, who recounted the discussion and described the county's lead prosecutor as "flabbergasted" by the DNA results.

Zellner criticized the Illinois State Police lab for failing to get a genetic profile when analysts at the Joliet lab examined the vaginal swab.

Lt. Lincoln Hampton, a state police spokesman, said the lab did only preliminary work on the case before the evidence was sent to a private lab, and so it never had the opportunity to try to isolate the DNA--an explanation Zellner challenged.

With the case against Fox dismissed, Glasgow said prosecutors and sheriff's detectives--although none whose work led to charges against Fox--will reopen the case and investigate it with renewed vigor.

Additional DNA testing also will be performed, he said.

"A vicious sexual predator murdered Riley Fox last June, and we are making it our No. 1 priority to reopen this case and aggressively investigate it ..." Glasgow said, adding that there were a "number of leads" investigators were reviewing.

Sheriff Paul Kaupas declined to answer questions about the case but read a brief statement in which he said that "... if evidence presents itself, we'll keep an open mind, continue the investigation and follow any and all leads."

The case began on a quiet Sunday last June. Fox was home with Riley and Tyler, while his wife was in Chicago taking part in a charity walk.

The night before, Fox told police, he had gone to a street festival. He had left the two children in the care of their grandparents. After he picked them up, around midnight, he put them to bed.

In the morning, the front door to the home was open, but Kevin Fox said he did not know whether his daughter had opened it and wandered off.

Between 500 and 600 volunteers took up the effort, and her body was found later that day in Forked Creek, 4 miles from the family's home.

An autopsy determined that Riley Fox had been drowned.

Kevin Fox, then 27, was arrested four months later after the sheriff's office said he gave a videotaped statement implicating himself in the crime.

According to sheriff's officials, Fox said in the videotape that he accidentally killed his daughter but tried to make her death look like a murder and sexual assault so police would not suspect him of the crime.

Fox, in the interview, said he sometimes despaired being in jail but never gave up hope that the truth would emerge and he would be released.

He told himself "there is a big light at the end of the tunnel. It's just how far is the tunnel. And we're arriving at the end."

Some observers charged that then-State's Atty. Jeff Tomczak, who was in a tight race for re-election against Glasgow, filed charges against Fox and quickly decided to seek the death penalty only to quiet criticism over the failure to make an arrest in the case.

Tomczak denied the allegations but eventually was beaten by Glasgow.

Glasgow renewed criticism of Tomczak on Friday, saying at a news conference that it was the state's attorney's duty to stay on top of the forensic evidence and that the office had failed.

"So when you send something to the lab, you monitor it," he said. "The state's attorney's office at that point needs to get involved and say, `Wait a minute. We've got to get this to the laboratory so that we can process it quickly.'"

Zellner praised Glasgow for his handling of the case, saying that Glasgow had "inherited somebody else's mess and still he did the right thing."

The confession was the most contentious piece of evidence and, from the start, Zellner aggressively challenged how the police obtained it.

Fox, according to Zellner, confessed only after he was questioned for 14 hours and was exhausted, and because authorities allegedly promised him that he would face lesser charges and quickly be released if he said his daughter's death was an accident.

"They get people who are emotionally traumatized and obtain a bogus confession," said Zellner, who has helped to free several wrongly convicted inmates but, in an unusual move, took on the defense of Fox before trial.

"People say to me that they would never confess to killing their child," said Zellner. "Have you ever had a child who was murdered? Do you know what it's like to go through that kind of trauma and then be suspected of something like this?"

Melissa Fox said she never thought her husband killed their child.

"... there was nothing that triggered in my mind or my heart that he had ever done anything wrong," she said.

Friday's hearing saw none of the contentiousness that had marked the case.

Fox entered the courtroom wearing a blue jail uniform and crying. When he met his wife's gaze, she began to cry as well. And when Glasgow began to explain he was dismissing the case, their crying grew stronger and Fox's thin shoulders began to shake.

After the judge dismissed the charges, friends and family who had packed the courtroom started to whoop and cheer, then broke into prolonged applause.

Fox family members were jubilant. They told Fox's father, Curtis, that his son's release was a perfect Father's Day gift--two days early.

Sitting in Zellner's office while family members ate pizza and drank champagne and beer, Kevin Fox said his immediate plans are to enjoy his wife and son--and continue to mourn his brown-haired daughter.

While in jail, he had not wanted Tyler to see him in a bad place.

Consequently, he went eight months without seeing his son, although they did talk on the phone.

He may also become a spokesman for falsely accused people, and he said he certainly would press ahead with his federal civil rights lawsuit.

"It's not over," he said. "It's far from over. We have so many more obstacles to hurdle. But we've gotten this far, and I don't think anything could tear us apart after what we've been through."

Kevin Fox: 'I Did Not Kill My Daughter'
"Statement Of Kevin Fox Regarding His Interrogation By The Will County Sheriff's Office"

"I want the public to know that I did not kill my daughter. I have always cooperated with the authorities in the investigation of my daughter's death. On Oct. 26, I went to the Will County Sheriff's Department at the request of the investigators. I tried to cooperate and answer their questions, however, they became very abusive -- yelling and screaming at me that I had killed her."

"For hours, I told the investigators that I did not kill my daughter. I asked them repeatedly to call my father so that he could get me a lawyer. I was told that I did not need to speak to my father or a lawyer."

"I was kept in a locked area for approximately 14 ½ hours. I was told by the investigators that if I did not give a statement saying I was involved in my daughter's death that they "knew inmates at the jail" that would make sure that I was (expletive) every day I was there."

One of the investigators "got 6 inches from my face screaming at me that I was a (expletive) for not talking and that my wife was going to divorce me if I didn't cooperate."

"I was told that I would be in jail for 30 years unless I talked. At one point the investigators threw a picture of my deceased daughter on the table in front of me. They screamed that I had duct taped her mouth and hands. This was the first time I learned that she had been bound. The wanted me to say that there had been an accident at home and that she had hit her head -- that was the first time I learned that she had lumps on her head."T

hey said if I said that she fell and I panicked and tried to cover up the accident I could only be charged with involuntary manslaughter and would immediately go home on bond and could not get more than 3-5 years. They told me to say that I duct taped her mouth and hands."

Kevin then says authorities told him to say that he performed an act on his daughter to make it "look like a sexual attack."

"I have never been under this kind of pressure in my life. I was isolated, alone and terrified. As soon as I saw my brother and lawyer I told them I did not do this. I love my wife, daughter and son more than anything in this world. I trusted the authorities and they betrayed me and my family. I can only hope the truth will come out."




http://www.truthinjustice.org/kevin-fox.htm

[annalyzer]

Riley Fox case discussed on “20/20”

Associated Press
November 07, 2008

WILMINGTON, Ill. - An interrogator repeatedly asked the young brother of Riley Fox if his father was involved in his 3-year-old sister’s disappearance and murder, according to a videotape aired Friday on a national newsmagazine.

The video aired on ABC’s “20/20” shows a then-6-year-old Tyler Fox enclose his head in his baseball cap and hood of his sweat shirt and become increasingly upset as investigator asked about Kevin Fox’s possible involvement in the Wilmington girl’s 2004 death.

The boy cried and rubbed his eyes as the Will County investigator knelt before him.

“Did you see her go out with someone? Even Dad?” the woman said. “She can go with her own dad. Did you see her go out with Dad for a little bit? Did you see Dad carry her out just for a little bit? It’s OK, if you did.”

“No,” the boy said.

“I think what you see in that is just purely evil,” Kevin Fox’s attorney, Kathleen Zellner, said on the program. “They take this child who’s in this horrible situation and they are trying to manipulate him to help them frame his father. It is despicable.”

The woman who interviewed the boy settled a lawsuit with the Foxes out of court and denied any wrongdoing, the program said.

Hikers found Riley’s body in a creek four miles from her home, a short time after Kevin Fox reported the girl missing on June 6, 2004.

Fox was released from the Will County Jail in June 2005 when DNA evidence failed to link him to Riley’s murder. He was charged with first-degree murder and criminal sexual assault and spent eight months in custody before being released.

Fox and his wife later filed a civil rights lawsuit against Will County detectives, saying they fabricated evidence. A jury in December 2007 sided with the Foxes, awarding them more than $15 million in damages.

Will County officials, including former State’s Attorney Jeff Tomczak, denied the allegations made in the lawsuit.




http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2008/nov/07/sports/chi-ap-il-missingchild-tv

[packy]

Three-page article with background and some pictures. http://www.chicagomag.com/Chicago-Magazine/July-2006/The-Nightmare/

[annalyzer]

Who Killed Riley Fox?
Father Imprisoned in Disappearance and Death of 3-Year-Old

By DAVID MUIR, MIGUEL SANCHO and RENA FURUYA
Nov. 7, 2008

In the summer of 2004, a little girl named Riley Fox was abducted and murdered in the small town of Wilmington, Ill., about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. It was a gruesome crime that rocked the Rust Belt community and remains a mystery to this day.

3-Year-Old Riley Fox vanished, and her father became the prime suspect.But more than just a tragedy and a whodunit, the Riley Fox case is the story of her family's strange, overwhelming ordeal -- a nightmare in which Riley's death was only the first excruciating episode.

On the morning of June 6, 2004, Kevin Fox was home alone with his two children, 3-year-old daughter Riley and son Tyler, 6. His wife Melissa was away that weekend for a walk to raise breast cancer awareness in Chicago.

Just before 8 a.m., Tyler woke Kevin and told him that Riley was gone. Kevin began searching for her himself, but after 40 minutes with no luck he called the police.

By the time Melissa found out and rushed home from Chicago, nearly the entire town was helping search for the little girl. The turnout was a testament to just how close the community is.



(much more at link)
http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=6196896&page=1

[annalyzer]

http://www.justiceforriley.com/

[Faith]

http://i286.photobucket.com/albums/ll116/helpfindthemissing/Sympathy/Angel2x.gif

[annalyzer]

From above link ~

To convince the jury, Zellner turned back to the interrogation of 6-year-old Tyler Fox. She said the tape of the interrogation reveals how badly the police wanted Tyler to point the finger at his own father. Tyler can be seen covering his head with his hoodie and becoming more and more upset in the video as the interviewer questions him about Kevin's possible involvement in the crime. According the Zellner, she counted 168 times that he's asked and he shook his head, no.

"He's trying to tell her he doesn't know anything and she just won't stop," Zellner said of the interviewer. "I think what you see in that is just purely evil. They take this child who's in this horrible situation and they are trying to manipulate him to help them frame his father. It is despicable."

The interviewer on the tape settled with the Foxes out-of-court and denied any wrongdoing. But the Will County detectives went to trial.

After five weeks of testimony, a jury awarded Kevin Fox and his wife Melissa $15.5 million in their civil rights case against Will County.

WATCH: Young Child Interrogated by Police
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6207937

[annalyzer]

WATCH: What Happened to Riley: Part 2
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6210708

WATCH: What Happened to Riley: Part 3
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6210731

WATCH: What Happened to Riley: Part 4
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6210755

WATCH: What Happened to Riley: Part 5
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6210784

WATCH: What Happened to Riley: Part 6
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6210808

WATCH: The Day They Found Riley
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6209486

WATCH: Suspicion After a Toddler Goes Missing
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6200591

WATCH: Kevin Fox's 911 Call
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6208077

WATCH: Family Friends on Riley's Disappearance
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6207884

WATCH: Kevin Fox Interrogation Reenactment
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=6209208

[packy]

Poor child and her killer still walks free. Shows us how a it's not always good to rely on a confession. I remember when this happened and it's hard to accept that the case hasn't been solved yet. But no wonder when we hear of the way they handled the DNA and didn't follow through, so disgusting.

Bless Riley's little soul.

[annalyzer]

Poor child and her killer still walks free. Shows us how a it's not always good to rely on a confession. I remember when this happened and it's hard to accept that the case hasn't been solved yet. But no wonder when we hear of the way they handled the DNA and didn't follow through, so disgusting.

Bless Riley's little soul.

This case made me do some re-thinking on how I viewed interrogation confessions.

Did you see the video of the little boy being interrogated? :mad:

[packy]

No I have trouble with videos on my puter so I don't dare. But I've been very leery about being comfortable with confessions for a long time.

[protectkidz]

Riley's case is on the front page of CNN today, from Nancy Grace's Cold Cases:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/15/grace.coldcase.riley/index.html

What an absolutely horrible case. The killer has to be someone who is very calculated and experienced, imo.

[Claycat]

I had not read this one before. Poor Riley! I feel so sorry for her family being put through so much.