Nearly two years after arrest in 1972 murder of Julie Ann Hanson, case still hasn't gone to trial
JOLIET, Ill. (CBS) -- Julie Ann Hanson was raped and murdered in Naperville in the summer of 1972, and it took almost 50 years for police to make an arrest.
But now it is coming up on two years since that arrest did happen, and prosecutors have yet to take the case to trial.
As CBS 2's Chris Tye reported Tuesday night, there have been complicating factors in the prosecution one of Naperville's coldest - and most chilling - cases.
Hanson was reported missing on July 8, 1972. She borrowed her brother's bike to ride to his baseball game from their Wehrli Drive home, and the 15-year-old never came back.
Hanson was found dead in a cornfield near 87th Street and Modaff Road - sexually assaulted and stabbed 36 times. Her brother's bicycle was found alongside her.
The case sat cold just shy of 50 years.
"We had Julie's picture on our desk to make sure that we'd never forget this case," former Naperville police Chief Robert Marshall said in June 2021.
It was June 2021 when the case turned. DNA from the scene - measured at a trillionth of a gram - matched with a 23andMe-type service.
Police say Barry Lee Whelpley, a welder living in suburban Minneapolis, lived in Naperville in '72 - and killed Julie Ann Hanson.
It has been 19 months since his arrest - and the case has yet to be set for trial.
CBS 2 has been there for many of the dozens of motions and status hearings. And we've dove into the case file, which reveals dozens of items taken from Whelpley's home that investigators say "may constitute evidence."
They include pages of hand-drawn knives, a Panasonic microcassette tape in a shoe box in a garage workbench, a pendent on red string, and photographs of a young female and young male.
But look further, and documents are supposed to include everything from "statements of the defendant" to "supplemental physical evidence" – and even the "list of witnesses, which instructs the reader to "see attached."
But nothing is actually attached.
In May 2022, we asked Whelpley's defense attorney, Terry Ekl, why so little is public.
"Because there were a lot of people who were not charged that are mentioned in the investigation," Ekl said in May of last year, "and additionally, you know, once these reports get out, there's going to be a lot more media coverage - and I think both sides would prefer there to be as little media coverage as possible."
Also complicating the case is that when police came to arrest Whelpley, their body cams rolled on a private conversation between the suspect and his wife that the judge threw out.
So when this case does go to trial, which sources said will be later this year, it is that trillionth of a gram of DNA that is likely to speak loudest in the People v. Barry Whelpley.
While a trial date has yet to be set, there is another hearing on the case next week in Will County Court in Joliet. Last year, Hanson's family said they arent ready to talk - but still can't believe there actually will be a trial for their little girl, who today would be in her mid-60's.
