Family of 1972 Naperville, Illinois murder victim finally has "closure" with suspect dead
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) -- Julie Ann Hanson was 15 years old when she was raped and murdered in Naperville in 1972.
It was a cold case for 49 years. But three years ago, there was a break in the case that led to charges against a Minnesota welder named Barry Lee Whelpley. But before he could go to trial on those charges, Whelpley was found dead of natural causes in his jail cell just last month.
Hanson's family has now spoken out for the very first time.
"This is a big letdown; very anticlimactic," said Hanson's sister, Jill Steininger. "After 50 years, you know, you'd kind of hope for a 'guilty' and, you know, an, 'I did it.'"
But Steininger left the Will County Courthouse in Joliet Wednesday knowing that a confession would never come in the murder of her sister 52 years ago.
"I don't have to look over my shoulder anymore," Steininger said, adding that she did feel she had to do so for decades.
On July 7, 1972, Julie Ann Hanson borrowed her brother's bike from the family's home on Wehrli Drive in Naperville. She never came back.
Hanson's body was later found in a nearby cornfield. She had been stabbed 36 times and sexually assaulted.
"In the beginning, it was really rough. Things were very raw," said Steininger. "But as time goes on, it gets better. Still a loss, but it gets better."
In 2021, there was a Hail Mary play from Naperville police. They used the very last of their DNA from the scene - measured at a trillionth of a gram.
Using new technology, they got a match from a sample from a 23andMe-type service. Whelpley, of suburban Minneapolis, was that match – the retired welder had indeed lived in Naperville in the 70s.
"You always want to know why, who, what happened that made that person do that crime to somebody that you love," said Steininger. "It was hard."
Harder still was that it all appeared random. The family had no connection to Whelpley, who died of natural causes in February in the Will County Jail.
"I couldn't believe it to begin with," Steininger said, "because we had just seen him, you know, a couple days before - and he looked good."
Three years after his arrest, the trial never began. This week, it formally ended.
Steininger said the wheels of justice having moved so slowly was frustrating.
"You kind of want things to be faster," she said.
The case was slowed down because of something that happened when Naperville police came to Whelpley's home to question him.
"They had a body camera on during their interview with him in the house – it took place about seven or eight hours," said Whelpley's attorney, Terry Ekl, said in 2022. "But then when his wife got there, two of the detectives took the body cameras off, put them on a table - which permitted them to record a private conversation between the defendant and his wife."
That violated the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute, and a judge bounced the body camera footage - a back-and-forth that delayed the trial so long, the defendeat died before it could happen.
The slow wheels of justice led to a lack of a verdict - but the family has found closure.
"Well, this is my closure. Barry died sitting in jail – so that's a good thing," Steininger said. "Going into the trial, I felt confident that Barry was the one that did it. We have a DNA match – so that works. I'm happy that it's all over with, that it's done, and that I know who it was who murdered my sister."
Hanson's family say enough about the Naperville Police Department. The police chief has had Hanson's picture on his desk for decades.
Meanwhile, the day after Whelpley died, the family went to Hanson's gravesite to "talk" with her. When they arrived, someone else was already there - the detective in this case was paying his respects on his own time.
The grieving family is appreciative of the police and the public who cared about their sister for more than half a century.