Waukegan Man Charged With Killing Wife, Disabled Daughter
Updated 06/09/14 - 6:12 p.m.
WAUKEGAN, Ill. (CBS) -- A 53-year-old man has been charged with two counts of murder, after allegedly killing his wife, their disabled daughter, and a dog at their home in Waukegan, before trying to take his own life.
CBS 2's Courtney Gousman reports the man apparently confessed to killing his wife and daughter -- who was confined to a wheelchair -- during a call to 911.
Police were called to the family's home on the 4100 block of Continental Drive around 6:15 p.m. Sunday, when they got a 911 call from a man who claimed he had killed his family, and was going to take his own life.
"Officers immediately responded to the scene. Once they arrived … they found what they believed to be a suicide note on the front porch of the address. They went inside the residence, and immediately took a male suspect into custody," Waukegan Police Cmdr. Joe Florip said.
Anthony Marcus, 53, was arrested and taken to the hospital with self-inflicted wounds.
Police said after Marcus was arrested, officers searched the home. Inside, they found the bodies of his 50-year-old wife, Sun Marcus; his 17-year-old daugher, Samantha Marcus; and the family dog. All three were dead, but police would not say how they were killed, or how Anthony Marcus injured himself.
Police said Samantha was bound to a wheelchair.
"The autopsy results indicate that our victims were strangled," said Florip.
Anthony Marcus has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, and his bond was set at $5 million on Monday. He was due back in court on July 2.
Sources said Marcus wrote a suicide note to his daughter, apologizing for his "failure at everything."
When neighbor Jennifer McMillian started hearing pieces of what happened, she immediately began to worry about the couple's daughter.
"To me she was a baby, because she looked ... she was 17, but she looked so young," she said. "And she was in a wheelchair. What could she have possibly done to anybody to deserve what happened to her?"
Neighbors said Marcus is a retired veteran. The daughter just finished her junior year in high school.
McMillian said she'll remember the blank expression Marcus had when he was carted out.
"He didn't say anything. He looked like he was just maybe in a daze," she said.
Joe Hiett used to be Marcus' boss at Tech Systems, Inc. and says he was a model employee.
"Whenever I saw him always happy. You wouldn't have any indication that there was anything going on with him," said Heitt.
But the murders are especially disturbing to Samantha Marcus' classmates and teachers at Warren Township High School in Gurnee. They describe the soon-to-be senior, who used a wheelchair to manage her muscular dystrophy, as a bright young woman.
"Very independent, very much her own woman. Very friendly, vivacious, engaging. Just a real sweetheart," said Warren Township Superintendent Mary Perry Bates.
